When I was at church the other day, the question was asked "how do you pray?" and it got me thinking.

How do you pray?

Before I go to bed at night I do what I call 'The 10' and I pray for 10 people/groups of people.

I start out with:
I want to pray for ________.
I pray that _________.

and do it for 10 people.

and then I get to the 'asking' part of it.
I pray for strength, support, and guidance.


I don't feel there is a certain way to pray, but this way works for me, but I was wondering if any of you had a special way to pray.


(If you don't feel comfortable sharing, because you believe this is a private and personal matter, I understand, I just ask that you don't flame me for being curious. )

I have formal and informal prayers I kinda babble at God a lot all the time and then I have quiet times of more "organized" prayer...praise,confession,thanksgiving,requests & supplications,more thanksgiving and praise. Those were the ways I was taught to pray from childhood.

when I wake up each morning and am too tired to think anything yet, I always try to say the Lord's Prayer ( the "Our Father.....") to start the day before my fuzzy brain starts to wake up and do its own thing.

I guess most often my prayers are very varied and conversation with God about many different things. I also try to remember to be quiet more and listen more

Our Pastor once asked the congregation about our prayer habits, but not in an offensive way. It also got me to thinking about prayer, meg.
I am kind of like Chemar, in that, I tend to talk to The Lord out of the blue at times and then I have there's times I have a more structured prayer time w/him.

Alot of the time, I'm alone in my car, so choose to pray then. I try really hard to pray before I close my eyes at night. I feel calm and quiet then.

There are lots of different ways to pray.

I sometimes talk to God as if he was right here with me. Just conversation.

Other times when I really need him I'm a little more formal.

I do pray in the morning at night and before I eat my meals.

Mostly I talk to God like I am talking to a friend.

Nothing formal... I'm not good with formal...

I know He hears me not matter how I am talking to Him.

Abbie

i liked abbie's reply fits in with how I approach prayer

How do I pray you ask?

Prayer is a quiet spiritual dialogue for me.

As an evolutionary biologist, some may find it odd that I can be spiritual, but in fact many most of us are spiritual in one way or another.

A Real Example:
Imagine being in the Mojave desert when the temperature is over 120F and you feel like you are with Dante,.., and you know that you have to return to the same site the following day. Prayer is not even a part of the equation at the time, just persistence and the hope that you can get to the motel before you melt.

THEN,.., you return to the same site the very next day before sunrise, moving slowly along a desolate dirt road that is fifty miles from the nearest human.

When you get to the site, it is still dark and you know that you are going to be alone for the rest of what is expected to be another hard and hot day.

The sun is just starting to illuminate the desert mountains in a purple-gray color but something is strange about this particular scene, so you get out of your truck for a better view. The truck door is opened to an odd and cool breeze so you get back into the truck quickly. You doze off for a few moments...

Then the sun rises enough to make things clear...and the 120F of the previous day is washed away when you see that the entire desert is covered with snow...cold white pillow-like snow.

It is then that in silence I am spiritual.

-Vic

Prayer is communication with God in three Persons. I talk to Him all the time! Often, I hear myself saying, "Good one!" or "what a great idea!" Sometimes my disease makes me extremely frustrated and I just yell at him with my fist in the air.

I've also been writing Him a long letter for years. I write it just like I'd write to a friend ('cuz I am!).

Most of the time though, I admire him, I confess my sins, I thank Him for forgiveness, and I ask for His blessings and comfort for a long list of people.

I learned it this way: ACTS

Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication

If you look up the Lord's Prayer in the Bible, think it in your own words, you'll start to see yourself and your own life in it.

I honestly believe that God would rather have us fumbling for words (H.S. is a great translator) than not communicating with Him at all. He made us all by design and He knows what's in your heart— share together with Him, not at Him.

I wish I was an evolutionary biologist.

Wow, I am awed by everyone's answers.

I am not so eloquent, but your question made me think of this poem:



THE PRAYER OF CYRUS BROWN

by Sam Walter Foss


"The proper way for a man to pray,"
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
"And the only proper attitude
Is down upon his knees."

"No, I should say the way to pray,"
Said Reverend Doctor Wise,
"Is standing straight with outstretched arms
And rapt and upturned eyes."

"Oh, no, no, no,"
said Elder Slow,
Such posture is too proud.
"A man should pray with eyes fast-closed
And head contritely bowed."

"It seems to me his hands should be
Austerely clasped in front
With both thumbs pointing toward the ground,"
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.

"Last year I fell in Hidgekin's well
Headfirst," said Cyrus Brown,
"With both my heels a-stickin' up
And my head a-pointin' down.

"And I made a prayer right then and there,
The best prayer I ever said,
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
A-standin' on my head."