Sometimes, especially as new believers, we are less than confident about how exactly we should pray. We ask God for things perhaps flippantly, with selfishness or clouded motives. Listed below, you'll find just some suggestions, offered humbly, that may help you when praying. Even the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray and Jesus taught them....which has come to be associated with the term 'The Lord's Prayer' Matthew 6:9-13.
"So, also, the Spirit supports us in our weakness. We do not even know how to pray as we should; but the Spirit himself pleads for us in sighs that can find no utterance." Romans 8:26
"If any one of you lacks wisdom, they should ask wisdom from the God who gives freely to everyone without reproach, and it will be given to them." James 1:5
Prayer Helper: "Lord Jesus, thank you for your word that is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Thank you for discernment when applying your word to my life when making life choices and in my daily interactions with others. Thank you for protecting me in the past when my foolish choices could have easily taken my life. Thank you for all correction and discipline that I may more diligently follow your laws. Thank you for teaching me how to become a more happy, obedient, loving, faith filled person. Thank you for enduring me and still loving me when I was self destructing in many ways - making unwise choices; bad decisions. Thank you for protecting me from myself. Please God, let me not drift from you and trample more mercies and kindness as if pearls before swine. Thank you for the Holy Spirit that intercedes and helps me pray when I pray unwisely or clumsily. With your wisdom, may I become more pleasing to you and a more positive force in the lives of those around me. Thank you Lord. Thank you that you know what I need before I even speak. Let me not waste, neglect, or lesson in any way; to any degree, any wisdom given me. Thank you Jesus. Thank you."
"I cried to you for help, O Lord my God, and you healed me." Psalm 30:2
"But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed."
Isaiah 53:5
Just as Jesus paid for our sins upon the cross, through his stripes/wounds we ARE healed. Believe and receive healing already allocated to you through the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit already within each believer.
Prayer Helper: "Thank you Jesus for any and all circumstances that brings me closer to you. Forgive me Lord when, in my heartache and fear, I have doubted and questioned your love for me. When, in my ignorance, have even been angry at you. I stumble to understand the bigger picture regarding life. I do understand that You are merciful. I understand that You are kind. I know that you truly love me more than I can see or understand. Lord Jesus, thank you for the peace that comes only by trusting you completely. Weigh my heart Lord. Thank you for seeing through any clouds of fear, or grief, or confusion within me. Calm any ebb and flow where my trust in you may vary at times. I know that I have no standing to question you or your ways. I lack even the ability to truly comprehend what you have already done for me, and humanity. From your obedience to Father God in the garden when the cup did not pass, enduring the whip (stripes), to all pure love displayed while you hung on that cross...it's too heavy a weight to comprehend, to every degree, what you did. In your love for me, I receive your healing power. I believe and receive healing through "your wounds and stripes". Thank you for your love for me. Thank you for your wisdom in all things. I decide to fully trust you regardless of any outcome. Thank you for adding to my faith and trust in You. Thank you for the peace of mind I most desperately needed as I rest in you. Thank you Jesus."
"but without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that God exists, and that he rewards those who seek for him." Hebrews 11:6
"And so we gather, faith is a result of teaching, and the teaching comes in the message of Christ." Romans 10:17
Faith is the realization of things hoped for – the proof of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Prayer Helper: "Lord Jesus. Thank you that I can strengthen my faith by studying your word and following your teachings. Let me not just read your truths but follow them diligently. Protect me from any doubt. Correct my thinking when excuses become louder than my obedience. Let me not rationalize my circumstances when full trust in you is required. Let me have the courage, wisdom and back-bone to believe in you, trust in you, rest in you; when situations overwhelm me. When I do not understand, let me trust; when tempted by doubt, only believe; when worried and fearful, let me rest in you. Keep me from all evil. Let your words and laws be that on which my mind dwells. Fill my desires with your desires that I not continue in any sin. Thank you for all footing your word provides. Show me all forms of hypocrisy in my life. Fix in me that which conflicts with your perfect will for my life. I know I am nothing without you; another soul here today and gone tomorrow. Let me not waste any more fleeting years given to me. Place me on the path that pleases you Lord. Thank you for continuing to complete in me that which you have started."
"Put that message into practice, and do not merely listen to it – deceiving yourselves." James 1:22
"So Jesus went on to say to those who had believed him, 'If you remain constant to my message, you are truly my disciples;'" John 8:31
"Not everyone who says to me ‘Master! Master!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On ‘that day’ many will say to me ‘Master, Master, was not it in your name that we taught, and in your name that we drove out demons, and in your name that we did many miracles?’ And then I will say to them plainly ‘I never knew you. Go from my presence, you who live in sin.’" Matthew 7:21-23
Prayer Helper: "Lord Jesus thank you for all mercy and patience with me. Thank you for the Holy Spirit which reminds me of your laws to protect me from any fruit of sin choices. Thank you for your word that points me back towards you. Let me not desire sin more than serving you. I know you have protected me from my past choices that were sinful and unwise. I know there is no guarantee you will continue to protect me when I disobey. I know you have covered me in your grace, time after time, when I deserved the full weight of my sinful decisions. Fix within me anything that allows me to drift apart from you. Let me not grieve the conviction of the Holy Spirit that reminds me to change course on any direction away. Keep my heart soft that I not become callused to your warnings. Let me not use your grace to dilute the seriousness of all consequences that come with sinning against you. Fix anything within me that keeps me from total obedience to your teachings. I know that even if I had everything on earth, I am still empty. I'm nothing without you Jesus. Thank for dying on the cross for someone like me. Thank you for enduring me even when I think I'm doing pretty good (blind to something that needs work). Thank you Jesus. Have mercy on me. Let me not be another soul that falls away from you. Thank you Jesus."