Prayer: Where to start and how to keep going

When we pray, we are not putting money in the heavenly slot machine to get what we want or to make a transaction with God. Prayer isn’t just asking for things.

Reading the Bible each day is a basic part of the Christian diet. Other spiritual books, apps and podcasts can also be very helpful. I’ve tried to signpost just a few resources here that might help you take the next step in your prayer journey.

Throughout Christian history, when people sought to deepen their relationship with God they went into the desert. They pursued isolation. This way of living the Christian vocation was called the solitary life.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he gave them a simple formula. He said, “When you pray, this is what you say” (Luke 11.2).

He then told them that prayer that we know as the Lord’s Prayer.

Like so many things in life, so with prayer, going deeper often means less, not more.

Here are some ways of simplifying and purifying your prayer each day.

The question I’m going to explore here isn’t, of course, relevant to everyone – though it will be a very important one for some. And many of the principles below can – and, perhaps, should – apply to how we pray as adults, too.

Most of us have routines that shape the day. One of the ways of developing a life of prayer is to weave times of prayer into these existing rhythms and routines. If we attend to some simple spiritual disciplines and rhythms to shape our day, we are also more likely to maintain good mental health.

When you were at school you were probably taught to put your hands together when you prayed. But in one of his many books about prayer, Henri Nouwen says that when we pray “we are asked to open up our tightly clenched fists”.

Some people say prayer is like eating. We don’t eat all the time, but we need regular meals to resource us for everything else that happens during the day. Think of those times that you set aside for prayer as your chance to sit down and eat with God and receive what you need for the rest of the day.

Your wanting to pray is the beginning of a relationship with God that can grow and grow. And it can start anywhere.

Don’t worry if you find it difficult. It doesn’t depend on you nearly as much as you think.