Education
Explore. Learn.Grow in the Word.
Explore Scripture, its story, its people, and what it means for life today.
Bible Studies Faith & Spiritual Growth
Learning to Pray
What Scripture teaches about prayer, and how Christians develop a deeper and more consistent life of prayer.
The disciples watched Jesus pray and asked to be taught. That is the right instinct: prayer is learned, and nobody is born fluent in it.
What you’ll explore
- 01 What prayer actually is
- 02 The prayer Jesus taught
- 03 Honesty: the Psalms as a school of prayer
- 04 Persistence, and why Jesus commends it
- 05 Praying when you have no words
- 06 Praying with other people
- 07 Unanswered prayer
What prayer actually is
The psalm says to pour out your heart before him. Hebrews says to come with confidence, not with polish. Prayer in Scripture is addressed speech to a God assumed to be listening — not a technique, and not a mood you have to work yourself into first.
The prayer Jesus taught
Read Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-4
Notice what it is not: long, public, or impressive — Jesus warns against all three in the same breath. Notice the order: God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will, and then bread, forgiveness, and rescue. Christians have prayed these words verbatim for two thousand years and also used them as a skeleton to pray around.
Honesty: the Psalms as a school of prayer
Read Psalm 13; Psalm 142
Psalm 13 opens "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?" — and it is in the prayer book. The Psalms model complaint, confusion, anger and impatience addressed to God rather than hidden from him. If your prayers are more polite than these, they may be less honest.
Persistence, and why Jesus commends it
Read Luke 11:5-13; Luke 18:1-8
Both parables turn on somebody who will not stop asking, and in both Jesus draws the same conclusion: keep asking. He is not teaching that God is reluctant — the point of the comparison is the opposite, how much more will your Father give. Persistence is presented as normal, not as nagging.
Praying when you have no words
Read Romans 8:26-27
Paul says plainly that we do not know what to pray for as we ought, and that the Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. This is one of the most practically useful sentences in the New Testament. Silence, or a single sentence repeated, is still prayer.
Praying with other people
Read Acts 1:14; Acts 12:5; Matthew 18:19-20
The early church prayed together constantly, and Acts 12 shows a congregation praying for one man in prison. Praying aloud with others is uncomfortable at first and then becomes one of the strongest things about belonging to a church. Short and plain beats long and eloquent every time.
Unanswered prayer
Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 14:35-36
Paul asked three times for the thorn to be removed and was told no, with a reason he did not choose. Jesus in Gethsemane asked for the cup to pass and added "yet not what I will". Scripture does not offer a formula that guarantees the answer you want, and any teaching that does is promising something the Bible withholds.
Questions to sit with
- What is the most honest thing you have not yet said to God?
- Is there a request you gave up on rather than kept bringing?
- When did you last pray out loud with another person?
Every passage in this study
Go deeper
Where this connects
This study sits inside a larger story. Read the passages above in their own books, and follow the thread back through Scripture as a whole.