Beginner’s Prayer Guide: Tips for Creating A Simple Prayer Routine
How to pray for beginners
When you’re new to prayer, it’s easy to wonder if you’re doing it the “right” way. You may even be unsure about where to begin. The truth is, prayer isn’t about getting all the words perfect. It’s about spending time with God and building a real relationship with Him.
Having a simple prayer routine can help you stay consistent and focused. Simplicity makes prayer feel less intimidating.
If you’ve ever felt a little lost on how to start, you’re in the right place. Let’s break it down step-by-step so you can build a bold prayer life that feels natural, personal, and full of purpose.
Why Prayer Feels So Hard
You’ve probably heard people say something like, “prayer is just talking to God.” While that’s true, there are definitely right and wrong ways to talk to the Creator of the entire Universe. When you don’t know what those ways are, you struggle with approaching God.
For starters, God deserves respect. We shouldn’t approach Him in any kind of way, speaking to Him like we’d talk to any random person. The scriptures say to enter His presence with thanksgiving and praise (Psalm 100:4).
Also, if you aren’t a naturally good communicator, it’s no wonder you find it difficult to speak to the Lord. However, Moses was a terrible communicator, and He was very close to God. So, remember it’s not all in how well you speak.
God’s Word is an instructional guide to how we should live, but also how we should speak to Him. It just takes time, effort, and intention to discover it.
However, I don’t want you to think that you have to have an elaborate speech when praying. That’s not what praying “correctly” is about.
Prayer is essentially talking to God, but also speaking to Him with respect and communicating His will for your life and others’ lives as it aligns with the promises in His Word. If you don’t know what the Word of God says, it will be incredibly difficult to pray in line with it.
You Need a Prayer Routine and Here’s Why
You may be used to talking to friends and family sporadically. Or, you may have loved ones who don’t live nearby, so you have scheduled calls or video chats with them.
Regardless of where you are in your relationships with others, when it comes to prayer, it needs to be the most ongoing and closest conversations that are part of your life.
You won’t know God in any true capacity without building a relationship with Him through prayer. I know this all too well, and I’m sure you wouldn’t have to go far to meet others who agree.
With the busy lives that we have (and sometimes create for ourselves), it’s very easy to put prayer on the back burner. So, the only way to prioritize it is to make it a routine.
And, routines are not built in a day. They take time to build. So, that brings me to the next point.
Plan It / Schedule It
This may sound like something strict to do, but hear me out. Planning your prayer time has one purpose: to make sure you prioritize it.
Just like you would schedule a date night with your significant other or you’d schedule time to get a physical, you need to prioritize time with God the same way.
Now, God isn’t a tyrant who’s ready to strike you down if you miss your time with Him. No! Scheduling time with the Lord is for you.
God longs for you to know Him, and the only way that’s going to happen is if you spend time praying, talking to Him, and spending time in His Word.
Transparency in Prayer
Prayer is not a time to try and be elegant or cute with words. God knows what you need before you ask Him, and He doesn’t need you to put on an act.
Be transparent with the Lord. That may require some snot-nose prayers where you are just being real. It’s OK. The Lord wants you to be OK. He wants you to let your guard down and be yourself.
Talk to Him genuinely. That could look like the way you would speak to a trusted friend or family member.
Just remember that He is God. deserving of your respect.
Personalize Your Time with God
While you can come with an “agenda” of what to discuss with God, don’t feel pressure to do so. You can have talking points when you have some very specific prayer requests for others (also known as supplications), but you can also have times of just sitting in His presence.
The Lord is pleased knowing that you just want to speak with Him and get to know Him.
- Set the “mood” with music
- Light a candle
- Use colorful pens and highlighters for praying while doing your bible studying
It could look like 3 minutes of stillness with a single Scripture.
Or journaling your prayers while worship music plays in the background.
Or whispering one line while brushing your teeth.
What to Pray For
Remember, I mentioned earlier in the article that you should pray God’s Word back to Him? Well, that’s the bedrock for praying. Now, here’s an exhaustive list of things to pray about:
- Your health
- God’s favor
- Wisdom & discernment
- Family members
- Salvation for others
- A home
- Your co-workers
- Help for whatever you need
- God’s will to be done
- Hunger for God’s Word
- Mental clarity
- Forgiveness
- Deliverance from bad habits
- Time management
- Business management
- Challenges you or others are having
- Personal finances
- How you are feeling
- Peace
- Your local church
- Unity in the church
- Your pastor
- Work-Life balance
- Creativity
- Your hopes and dreams
- God’s will for your life
- Justice in the world
- Third-world nations
- Israel and the peace of Jerusalem
- Spreading of the gospel
- Spiritual awakening
- Your neighbors
- Persecuted Christians
- Human trafficking
- The school system
- The poor
- Racism in the world
- Sexism in the world
The list of things to pray about could go on for pages and pages. Just think…
Whatever you would talk about to someone else, you can talk about to God. Plus, He already knows it all anyway.
Use a Model to Pray
If you are struggling with prayer, there are models of prayer that can help you get the conversation started.
Jesus provided a model of prayer in the book of Matthew, chapter 6. There are also models of prayer using acronyms. Here are a few:
- A.C.T.S (See ACTS Prayer Method)
- P.R.A.Y (Praise God, Repent of Sin, Ask, Yield to His Will)
Regardless of what model you choose to use to assist you with praying, don’t neglect truths from the Word of God.
Use a Prayer Planner or Template
Prayer planners provide more in-depth “hand-holding.” They serve as a guide to walk you through understanding prayer, as well as supporting you in making it a habit. It’s a tool designed to help you plan, organize, and stay consistent in your prayer life.
Prayer templates are typically just one page (usually from a prayer planner). They provide you with a format or layout you can use to guide your individual prayer sessions.
The differences between the two are:
- Structure and format
- Content and purpose
- Usage
- Focus
How to Start a Prayer Journal
A prayer journal is another tool that provides open-ended space for writing your actual prayers, reflections, and conversations with God.
There are some beautiful prayer journals on the market, but you don’t have to spend any money to create your own prayer journal.
A simple prayer journal can be created from a plain notebook. All you’d need to do is date the pages as you write out your prayers, answers to pray. This is an unstructured prayer journal, but for some, the lack of structure is just enough structure for them.
A more structured prayer journal can be created by assembling it with printable pages and creating sections for:
- Personal prayers
- Prayer requests
- Confessions of Faith
- Gratitude & Thanksgiving
- Scripture reading/study
- Spiritual goals
In my opinion, all Christians can benefit from having a prayer planner and a prayer journal.
If you want help building a simple prayer routine that helps you to pray more boldly, knowing who you are in Christ, the She Prays Boldly Prayer Planner was made for you. It walks you through prompts, prayer strategies, and ways to finally make prayer feel personal, doable, and most importantly, effective.
These two tools will support you in praying in line with God’s word:
If you want something more basic but complete to help you align your mindset, the Prayer Practices Checklist & Journal Template can help you build a prayer life that supports your identity in Christ.
