Prayer

Notes from my youth group meeting last night:

XThere are lots of ways to pray! Don’t think it just involves sitting down in a quiet room with a list of things to say to God.

There are four main parts to prayer

ACTS:

Adoration – worshipping and praising God for who God is – the Psalms are particularly good at this

Confession (or penitence) – saying sorry to God and asking forgiveness for our sins, asking for God’s help to turn away from sin, called Repentance)

Thanksgiving – remembering to thank God for all God has done for us

Supplication (or asking) – praying for ourselves, the needs of the world, those we love and for our neighbours, bringing before God the things which concern us

Again, this doesn’t mean a certain way of praying, we can use lots of ways to help us to pray.

· Music (singing, playing an instrument, listening to music)

· Silence

· Candles

· Praying in groups

· Using written prayers either written ourselves or from books of prayers, or from service books

· Reading our Bibles out loud to ourselves and meditating on the words

The foundation of prayer is the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples when they asked ‘Teach us how to pray’

Our Father

Who art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

On Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory

For ever and ever. Amen.