The Prayer Guide

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Praying on Your Own
Many Christians feel they ought to spend more time praying.  For many of us it can remain a good intention, with accompanying feelings of guilt.  This website aims to avoid feelings of guilt, and instead offer some practical suggestions that will help Christians pray. These materials address some of the most frequently raised issues on prayer :
- What is Christian prayer?
- How can I find time to pray?
- How can I hear God speak?
- How can I control my thoughts - they keep wandering?
- What can I pray for?
- How should I pray?  Four elements to include in daily prayer times.
- I can't think what to say - what prayers can I say?
- How can I use the bible in my prayer time?
- Why doesn't God seem to answer my prayers?

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One common barrier to getting started is feeling uncomfortable or silly, wondering whether we are praying in "the right way".  Don't worry about this - God doesn't want us to be put off coming before him and spending time with him.  The Gospels tell of how Jesus called a young child to him, and how he used this child as an example of how adults need to come to God.   This applies to our praying.  We will need to leave behind the complex expectations and perceptions we may hold about prayer and about God and to come before Him with the simplicity and trust of children.  
No marriage can be expected to flourish and grow unless the married couple are able to spend quality time with each other and to engage in meaningful conversation, and exploration of each others' personalities and character.  So it is with prayer.  Our relationship with God, and our journey of faith is deepened by spending quality time in daily prayer.
It matters little how we start as long as we do start!   It is better to start with five minutes a day, if five minutes is all that can be found, than to aim for an hour's quiet time each evening and becoming frustrated that we cannot find the time to do this. Do persist, and recognise that it may take a while before you feel comfortable praying. Eventually you may find that the joy of a regular daily prayer time may be such that without intending to, you find yourself spending longer each day in prayer.
Pointers for Prayer : One of the biggest encouragements to pray is answered prayer. Do keep a prayer journal and jot down some of the things that you pray for, and after a few weeks or even days you can expect to see some signs of answered prayer. Take time to thank God for these. This prayer journal is a record which helps us see that answers to prayer depend not upon the words we use, but solely on the grace of God, and to be thankful for the way that He answers our prayers.