We all know we should pray, but sometimes it can be really challenging to know where to start and what to say. So whether you’re new to prayer or just feel that your prayer time needs refreshing, we’ve put together some tips to help you get talking to God.

Do:

• Set aside time each day. We can talk to God at any time; in fact, we’re told to ‘never stop praying’ (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT). But it can be useful to set a time each day to put aside all distractions and focus on building our relationship with Him. It’s also important to have times of silence to allow God the space to speak to us.
• Pray about everything. Sometimes we can think that God’s only interested in certain parts of our lives. But He cares about it all. The Bible says: ‘Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you’ (1 Peter 5:7 NLT). We can pray about all our situations, big or small.
• Pray with others and by yourself. Praying with others might seem intimidating, but the Bible tells us to pray for, and with, other people. However, we also need to spend time alone with God. Jesus often withdrew from the crowds and the disciples so that He could spend time talking to His Father.

Don’t:

• Try to make your prayers impressive. Some people think that when we pray, we have to speak in a formal way with long, complicated words. But if our motive for prayer is to impress God, or impress those who we’re praying with, then we’ve got it all wrong. Our prayers should come from the heart. We should think of prayer as a conversation with our best friend (because that’s what it is).
• Give up when God doesn’t seem to be answering. When nothing seems to be changing, we can be tempted to think that God isn’t listening, or doesn’t care about our problems. But that’s not true. We might never understand why things take so long, or why God doesn’t answer in the way we think He should, but we should persistently bring our prayers to Him and expectantly wait for His answers.
• Forget to say thank you. It’s great to bring our requests to God, but we also need to show gratitude when we experience answered prayer. Prayer isn’t about listing off everything we want God to do, it’s about cultivating a relationship. And relationships won’t last if we don’t show gratitude and appreciation.

If you need to pray with someone about anything you’re facing, the UCB Prayerline can help. Get in touch online at ucb.co.uk/pray or phone 01782 36 3000.