What is Prayer?

Prayer is, quite simply, talking and listening to God. Along with the Bible and worship, it is one of the primary ways we maintain and develop our relationship with our Loving Father.

Why pray?

“To ask the question why pray? is a bit like asking the question why breathe? One is essential to physical life; the other is essential to spiritual life. We pray to stay alive as Christians. We breathe the oxygen of God’s presence and love”.  

John Pritchard

We Pray…

  • to share our lives with God, letting him in regularly;
  • to get to know God more and explore his Kingdom;
  • to receive and express love from and to God;
  • to share our needs, big and small with him.

Different people, different prayer!

God has made us all unique and different. Sometimes we can feel inadequate when we try to pray like others using their patterns or models. But the Golden rule here is: 

‘Pray as you can, not as you can’t.

So look at some of the suggestions that follow – some may be more helpful for you and others less so – but you won’t know until you try.

How to Pray – Methods and Suggestions:

  1. Simple structured prayer

1. TeaSPoon Prayer :  Thank you, Sorry, Please

2. ACTS : Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication

3. Books of Prayers : many good books have good printed prayers – for example Oliver Tompkins’ ‘Asking God’

② Deeper structured prayer

1. In the Anglican Church we have ‘Daily Prayer’ which is a structured way of praying and has prayer for the morning, evening and night-time. This includes bible readings.

2. Many good online resources like Wordlive also have a good combination of prayers and bible readings.

③ Praying on the Go

Some us who are less structured of who are in a stage of life (like parenting) where structure and time are less available find simple ‘on the go’ prayers helpful. These include:

1. Arrow prayers – shooting off a simple prayer about something in front of you – could be as simple as ‘lord, please help this situation or person!

2. Triggers – allowing events of the day to trigger prayer – from brushing teeth to cooking tea to going to bed, anything can be used.

3. The Jesus prayer – ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me’ as you breath in and out

4. Music – praying as listen to music

④ Imaginative prayer

If you enjoy letting your imagination run, try one of these:

1. Praying the day: Imagine the day past is captured in a photo album. Imagine looking at photos of people you met, things you did, places you went. See each picture in the light of Gods presence. Each picture tells a story. What does it say, and what do you want to say to God about each one? 

2. Psalms: Either follow a published list of daily psalms like the Lectionary or work your way through the psalms (but only read 20-25 verses a day of the long ones!). 

3. Encountering Jesus: If you are praying for others, imagine bringing them to Jesus. Give time to let yourself imagine how he responds to them. Does he listen or touch or embrace? Let that image be your prayer. 

4. Letting yourself be loved: Teresa of Avila taught people to imagine Jesus looking at them lovingly and humbly. Imagine Jesus looking at you. Feel Gods love and acceptance. You are precious. 

5. The Caim: This Celtic form of prayer imagines the circle of Gods love being drawn around those we pray for. You can trace the circle with your finger in your palm as you pray for someone. Imagine such a circle drawn around our church, or your street. 

6. Artistic Prayer. Lots possible! Use modelling clay as you pray.  Write poetry.  Paint a picture.  Hold a pebble.  Light candles.  Allow your imagination to overflow into your praying. 

Getting Prayer For Something…

At St. Christopher’s, there are many ways to get something or someone on your heart prayed for – these include:

  1. Talking to the prayer team

Members of our trained prayer team are available to pray confidentially with you and for you during all of our Worship services.

②  Our Prayer Circle

If you have an immediate need, please contact our lay minister Brenda Munden, who will circulate your request through our Prayer Circle, a group of people who are committed to praying.

③ The prayer board

On the table in church you can place prayer requests on our prayer board for prayer.

④ Talking to a Minister

All of our Ministers here love to pray with and for people. Please do not hesitate to ask for prayer.

⑤ Join a small group

We have a number of small groups here at St Christopher’s, all of whom have prayer as part of their meetings.