“The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own.” H.B. Charles taught me that pointed lesson in It Happens After Prayer, and I’ve never forgotten it. 

Not every thought makes a good article and sometimes an entire article can be distilled down to a single thought. For those reasons, I like to occasionally create what I have created here–a roundup of brief, random thoughts. In this case, these thoughts are on prayer. Some of these are original and some are drawn from articles I’ve written in the past. I hope there’s something here that is helpful to you. (See also random thoughts on: Christian living; more Christian Living; the local church; and being a dad.)

No one apart from Jesus has ever mastered prayer, and no one apart from Jesus has ever fully understood it, so don’t be discouraged if you find praying difficult or perplexing. Be heartened that almost every book on prayer begins with the author admitting he is overwhelmed by his subject and convicted that he has not yet mastered it. It is more important that you obey than that you figure it out. You can pray with confidence, even if you don’t fully understand prayer.

While there are many resources designed to teach us to pray, and while they can be truly helpful, the only sure path to growing in your mastery and understanding of prayer is the one that involves actually praying. You learn to pray best by actually praying!

There are lots of great books on prayer and most Christians would benefit from reading at least one or two of them. Some of my favorites are A Praying Life by Paul Miller, It Happens After Prayer by H.B. Charles Jr., and Praying Together by Megan Hill.

A prayer meeting is a time in which a local church prays to God together, yet it is also a time in which the church teaches one another how to pray. If you struggle with knowing how to pray, be sure to attend the church’s prayer meeting, listen to the ways others pray, and imitate what they do well. They are your tutors.

Keep a long list and a short list of people in your church, with the short list being people you will pray for frequently (e.g., your small group) and the long list being people you will pray for less frequently (e.g., every member of the church). The more you have to do with people, the more likely they will be on your short list.

Pray through your church’s directory. Not only are you fulfilling one of your privileges and responsibilities as a member of the church, but you will also come to know and recognize people, especially if the directory provides their photo.

Pray for your enemies, just like Jesus said, and even pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44). As a lesser application of the same principle, it’s also wise to pray for people you just don’t like very much. 

Ask other people how they pray and imitate them where it makes sense to. But don’t be discouraged if their prayer life seems far more vibrant than your own. We all have different personalities, different ways of relating to others, and even different ways of describing our experiences. We can learn from others and even imitate them, yet we cannot and should not try to be them.

Prayer is conversation with God—doing now through prayer what we will someday do face to face. It is relational. Just as some people relate to others intellectually, some will relate to God intellectually, and just as some people relate to others emotionally, some will relate to God emotionally. Pray in line with the way God has made you. 

A prayer system can be a helpful aid to praying prayers that are both structured and varied. Such a system may involve the use of an app like PrayerMate or PrayMore or the use of notecards or a prayer journal. A system can help add structure to your prayer so, for example, you consistently pray prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. It will also ensure your prayers are varied by allowing you to pray for many people rather than the same ones and to thank God for a variety of his blessings rather than only a few.

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