The Right Words For Prayer

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. Revelation 4:11

I love words and I love writing, but I’m not the best speaker. Of all the situations that seem to set me up to say the wrong thing, funeral visitations have got to be the worst. I lecture myself before I even get out of the car. Keep it to a minimum. Don’t talk; listen. Don’t say anything stupid.

But then it feels like I need to say something, and I end up tripping over my words anyway.

If you know me, you’ve probably heard me say something awkward, or stupid, or just plain wrong. Maybe you feel that way about how your words come out, too. But fortunately there’s at least one relationship where all of our words are welcome.

When we pray to God, we really can say whatever is on our minds and hearts, even if it’s awkward, or stupid— even if it’s wrong! In fact prayer is the process by which we often work through these thoughts, sifting them and weighing them against one another, until we arrive at some truth.

Other times we can barely put our feelings into words or string together a coherent progression of thoughts. In these moments our prayers are aided by the Holy Spirit Himself (Romans 8:26), and God comforts our hearts in ways that can’t be put into words either.

But prayer is not just about my feelings, my wants, my struggles. Prayer should also include confession of sin, expression of thanks, and words of praise to God.

A few years ago our school had a staff meeting to prepare for our upcoming “Day of Prayer.” It was suggested that we use the common acronym ACTS as a starting point: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. One of our teachers commented that adoration is the type of prayer that typically gets the least time. As I reflected on that casual comment in the days following, I was struck by two things— how right she was, as far as my personal prayer life was concerned, and how inept I felt to remedy the situation. I determined to praise God more in prayer, but I could not find the words to do it. 

Naturally I turned to the psalms. I started looking for psalms that directly address God in praise. Immediately I had a new vocabulary, if you will, for praising Him.

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!  (8:9)

I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You. I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High!  (9:1-2)

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. (63:3)

And on and on it went. But some of what the psalms say about God is not directly addressed to Him. I wanted to pray those words too, so I began turning them into direct address with just a few pronoun changes. Suddenly my ability to praise God in prayer had gone from spare change to vast riches!

Of course it was a natural next step to look at other Bible passages and adapt them for prayer. If praying the scriptures interests you, I have put together a book of about fifty prayers organized according to the ACTS categories mentioned above. It is available through Truth Publications (linked below).

If you’re like me and you struggle with words; if your prayer life has been full of requests but lacking in praise; if you’re in a prayer rut, repeating the same few words and phrases, I hope you’ll check out my book.

But remember, whatever you say to God, it doesn’t have to be edited, or sanitized, or perfect. We don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing to God. We’re not praying to impress Him. Our prayers are worship, and God desires worship from the heart. We bring our thoughts and feelings to Him knowing He can help us make sense of it all. For this and so many other things, He is worthy of our praise!

Dear God, truly we have no better friend than You. Thank You for listening to us with patience and mercy when our hearts are full and our minds unclear. Help us as we pray, Lord, and may our most fervent desire always be “Thy will be done.” In Jesus’s name, Amen.

by Christie Cole Atkins

Click here for link to purchase Praying God’s Word Back To Him