Prayer is a confusing thing.

Some people pray for thirty minutes, other people pray for five seconds. We pray for help, we pray in gratitude. Some people only pray at dinner, some people pray at all meals. Some people pray for everyone they know and others pray an umbrella prayer for everyone.

I personally am really bad when it comes to praying on a regular basis—I used to pray before bed every night and I really looked forward to it! But for some reason, I’ve gotten really lax with praying and don’t look forward to it.

Half the time, I don’t even know what to pray.

Maybe you feel the same way?

A few years ago, I learned this acronym for ‘pray’ that really helped me.

Praise
Repent
Ask
Yield.

First, you praise. I typically resort to thanking versus praising, but I would say that you can do both, right?

Second, you repent. Apologize for the things you did that were in your best interest but not in others, apologize for hurting yourself, apologize for thoughts, whatever you feel inclined to repent for, then repent for it and ask for forgiveness.

Third, you ask. Whatever you have to ask for, ask for it. Sometimes it’s a funny thing like, “Please let him ask me out?!” and other times it’s a serious thing like, “Please don’t let them die.” Don’t be afraid to ask God for big things—he’s a big God, he can do it if it’s in his plan.

And last but not least, you yield. I’ve always been confused about this one, but when writing the post I finally deciphered the meaning. The definition of yield means to ‘give way to’, or ‘submit.’ God can make his own choices—they’re going to be for your good, even though you might not see it. So when you yield, you are saying, “Your will be done. You know what’s best.”

Yielding is both a mindset and an action. You can go into something, yielding to God, with the mindset of, “What happens, happens. That’s God’s plan. It will work out.” And as for the action, you can go into something without trying to take charge and make it work your way.

Of course, this is not the only way to pray. You can mix it up! In fact, you can pray however you want—you don’t have to use this acronym. And if you ever feel lost, you can pray the Sinner’s Prayer:

‘“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”‘
Matthew 6:9-13 NIV

If you notice, this follows the PRAY acronym list: it begins with praising and yielding. Then it goes to asking, then forgiving, and then asking once again.

I hope this helped you like it has helped me! Thanks for reading!
~Willow