How to Pray Using the PRAY Method
These four aspects of prayer based on the Lordās Prayer can provide a structure and flow for your prayer life. Approach them like dance steps rather than hard-and-fast rules to infuse freshness into your prayers.
Pause
Ā Jesus said . . . ,āWhen you pray, . . .ā
To start we must stop. To move forward we must pause. This is the first step: Put down your wish list and wait. Sit quietly. āBe still and know that I am God.ā Become fully present in place and time so that your scattered senses can recenter themselves on Godās eternal presence. Stillness and silence prepare your mind and prime your heart to pray from a place of greater peace, faith, and adoration. In fact, these are themselves important forms of prayer.
Rejoice
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
The Lordās Prayer begins with an invitation to adoration: āOur Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name.ā Having paused to be still at the start of a prayer time, the most natural and appropriate response to Godās presence is reverence. Try not to skip this bit. Hallowing the Fatherās name is the most important and enjoyable dimension of prayer. Linger here, rejoicing in Godās blessings before asking for more.
Ask
Your kingdom come, your will be done. . . . Give us today our daily bread.
Prayer means many things to many people, but at its simplest and most immediate, it means asking God for help. Itās a soldier begging for courage, a mother alone in a hospital chapel. The Lordās Prayer invites us to ask God for everything from ādaily breadā to the ākingdom come,ā for ourselves (petition) and for others (intercession).
Yield
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. . . . Amen.
The final step in the dance of prayer is surrender. Itās a clenched fist slowly opening; an athlete lowering into an ice bath; a field of California poppies turning to the sun. We yield to Godās presence āon earth as in heavenā through contemplative prayer and by listening to His Word, which is āour daily bread.ā We yield to Godās holiness through confession and reconciliation, praying, āForgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.ā And we yield to His power in spiritual warfare, asking our Father to ādeliver us from evil.ā Itās by surrendering to God that we overcome, by emptying ourselves that we are filled, and by yielding our lives in prayer that our lives themselves become a prayerāthe Lordās Prayerāin the end.