How to Pray for Beginners Using Jesus' Model of Prayer

“But when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” – Matthew 6:5

On today’s post, I would like to share with you some tips on how to improve your prayer life if you have one or how to establish one if you don’t have yet.

This post will focus on three main key points:

What is Prayer
Jesus’ Model of Prayer
Practical Tips on How You Can Incorporate Jesus’ Model of Prayer in Your Life

First things first! What is Prayer?

Prayer is a way of addressing God, talking to Him, thanking Him for what He has done in our lives and asking for forgiveness. It is our way of communicating with God so we can talk to Him and hear from Him.

There are many ways on how to pray. We can open our mouths and actually talk to him aloud. We can silently ponder our prayers in our minds. We can get on our knees or whisper our prayers in our bedroom. We can even write them down or post them on walls.

There is no wrong way to pray when it is done out of a sincere desire to draw closer to God.

You can pray whenever or wherever – long or short. I even pray when I’m cooking especially when I just got married.

If you have no idea how to pray, you can start with the Bible.Open it and you will see the many patterns of prayer of the faithful in the Bible.

The pattern that spoke to me the most is the one taught by Jesus.

Matthew 6 is literally Jesus teaching us how we should pray. I find it amazing that Jesus actually took the time to teach his followers how to pray. Because he knows that maybe we don’t know how to pray, so the great Teacher Himself taught us.

Let us read Matthew 6:5-13 together, break it down and let’s highlight the important concepts so we can get all the tips on how to pray. Let’s start with verse 5:

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

For me, the important concept here is Do Not Be Like the Hypocrites

First Tip: Don’t Pray to Impress

Jesus is very particular that our hearts are set up properly for prayer. This is not a time to show-off or make yourself look good on others. It is about showing your true self as vulnerable as you can with a sincere spirit that you want to talk to God.

This is actually easy to achieve when you are alone or you are writing it in a prayer journal. No one hears you except God so it’s easy to pour down your emotions and expose yourself to Him without fear of being judged. Just come as you are with an open heart that is willing to talk and hear from God.

Next verse:

⁶ “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Second Tip: Allot a Specific Place for Prayer

Every child of God should have some place to be alone with God. Without the daily quiet time with God, it would be more challenging to maintain a prayer life. Even Jesus Himself had his secret places. He often withdrew from the crowd to pray alone in silence.

I also talked about this in my video on Daily Quiet Time with God. By setting things up properly, you are creating an atmosphere that would soon serve as a trigger that signifies that place for your prayer time.

Find a place and time that would be distraction free. Even if it takes waking up early in the morning. Do the best you can.

Next let’s read verses 7-8.

⁷ “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Third Tip: Remind Yourself that God Knows What You Need

Sometimes when I have a long list of prayers, I feel uneasy and worry that I might forget to mention the things I need to pray for. What a delight to know that God already knows our needs! He wants us to say them during prayer because He likes it when we draw close to Him.

You can be at peace and pray as much or as little as you can. Every day is different.

I write many of my prayers in my prayer journal. Some days I might write three to four pages. Some days I barely fill one page. That is okay because God knows what we need. The most important thing is to get up and pray because the Holy Spirit can intercede for us when we don’t know what to pray.

Now let’s go on to the other verses.

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

Fourth Tip: Worship the Heavenly Father

Jesus shows here the areas of concern that should occupy a Christian’s prayer.

The greatest concern in our prayers and lives is the fear of God. We should always revere, glorify and exalt His name. In our prayer, we should always desire to worship God and be concerned about His reputation, His Gospel and character.

Jesus is really the great teacher because He emphasized that before anything else, we should always remember to regard God first and foremost.

Let’s go to verse 10:

¹⁰ your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Fifth Tip: Reflect on the Scripture

We know that prayer is a time to lift our requests to God. But here, we can see that Jesus emphasized the importance of submitting to God’s will and sincerely desiring to fulfill it in our lives.

In order to know what God’s will is, we have to read the Bible because it is revealed in His Words. By constantly reading the Bible, our hearts are getting more in tune with God.

This is the part that I lacked in my previous years of praying. Now I realized why I did not grow that much. I basically focused on myself and have very little regard for God’s will.

Let’s go to verse 11:

¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.

Sixth Tip: Present Your Requests to God

For years, this is my most favorite part. Having the confidence that I can go to God and present all my requests to Him. I had so many prayers that people may find ridiculous but I wasn’t embarrassed to present them to God because I know He will still give what is best for me. It may not be what I’m praying for but still what will be better for me.

Jesus is concerned about our daily needs that He allot a portion for that. So don’t feel ashamed asking these things in your prayer journal.

Next is verse 12:

¹² And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Seventh Tip: Ask God’s Forgiveness

Prayer must be concerned about repenting and asking God’s forgiveness. We don’t have to be ashamed coming to Him and presenting ourselves. We must learn how to humble ourselves knowing that He is a gracious God.

At the same time, we also ask His help to forgive others because God has forgiven our sins. We can ask God to forgive us and release us from the guilt and help us rewrite our story.

Last verse is verse 13:

¹³

And lead us not into temptation,[a]

but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’

Eighth Tip: Ask God for Wisdom on How to Fight Temptation

The minute you decide that you are going to commit your life to Jesus, you will be a special object of the enemy. You will face lots of temptation and resistance in the beginning. That is why we need God. We cannot do it alone. And He knows it beforehand. He gave us the assurance that we can fight temptation and be delivered from evil with His help.

How can we enlist His help?

Again, it is in His Words. There are literally practical steps that we can do for every battle we are into.

Write down in your prayer journal the battles or temptations that you are into then find and read Scripture that will give you wisdom to fight those. It is important to read the entire context and not just one verse alone.

Then ask yourself:

How can I really apply that wisdom in what you are going through?

I actually shared how you can craft your own Application when reading the Bible in my post Bible Study for Beginners: PRAISE Method.

Look at that! We just had a crash course on How to Pray from the Master Teacher Himself – Jesus!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Hi! I’m Kaye, a journal enthusiast. My blog is dedicated to sharing practical tips to help you gain clarity and purpose as you get closer to Jesus. Read along!