When you don't know what to pray

I’ve had a number of people ask me what to do when they don’t know what to pray.  First, many people don’t seem to understand what prayer is.  It’s really just talking to the Lord. I usually tell people to talk to Him the same way they’d talk to anyone else they love. You don’t need to use “thee’s and thou’s” when you pray, in fact, I’m sure the Lord would prefer you didn’t – unless of course that’s how you normally talk.  What He wants is to hear what’s in our hearts.

Some people are also in the habit of just reading prayers others have written.  While there’s nothing wrong with that at times, it’s not what the Lord really wants to hear.  Think, how would you feel if your loved one always read something they’d written out beforehand or that someone else had written to you, every time they came to talk to you?  It would sure hurt my feelings if my kids did something like that, because it would show me that they were either afraid to talk to me, or didn’t care enough about me to want to talk to me and tell me what was going on in their lives and in their hearts. So forget about formulas and everything else and just talk to the Lord.  Tell Him what’s going on with you; how you feel, what you think about things.  Ask Him questions (and be sure to pay attention when you read the bible, because He will answer your questions LOL)

There is one thing that many people do like to do when they pray, especially as they come to know God’s Word better and better, and that’s to pray His Word back to Him. You can pray just about any scripture. Just change the “you's” to "me" and so forth. It often happens automatically, as the person is studying His Word with Him… they’ll simply find themselves turning the verse into a prayer.  Or they may read the verse and find that the reading of it starts a prayer.  Like this verse:

Psalm 27:8 —My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek. *

often when I read that I find myself continuing and telling the Lord, “O Lord, I love to seek You and I long for You every day” and so forth.  For those unsure of where to begin as far as praying scriptures go, here’s a few of my favorites:

Psalm 84:1–2 —How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! *My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. *

Psalm 63:1–8 —O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. *I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. *Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. *I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. *My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. *On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. *Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. *My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. *

Psalm 42:1–8 —As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. *My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? *My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” *These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. *Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and *my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. *Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. *By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. *

Isaiah 26:8–9 —Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. *My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. *

Psalm 18:35 —You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. *

Psalm 51:1–17 —Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. *Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. *For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. *Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. *Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. *Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. *Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. *Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. *Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. *Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. *Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. *Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. *Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. *Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. *O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. *You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. *The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. *

Psalm 19:12–14 —Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. *Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. *May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. *

Psalm 25:4–5 —Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; *guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. *

Psalm 103:1–13 —Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. *Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— *who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, *who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, *who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. *The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. *He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: *The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. *He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; *he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. *For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; *as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. *As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; *

Psalm 86:11–12 —Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. *I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. *

Make Paul's prayers your own:

Philippians 1:9–11 —And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, *so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, *filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. *

Ephesians 1:17–21 —I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. *I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, *and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, *which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, *far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. *

Colossians 1:9–14 —For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. *And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, *being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully *giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. *For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, *in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. *

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 —May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. *The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. *

2 Thessalonians 3:16 —Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. *

2 Thessalonians 3:5 —May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. *

Let's say you come to a verse like this one:
Psalm 147:11 —the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. *

You could pray it as it is and then add, "Lord teach me to fear You and to put my hope in Your unfailing love." Or: Ephesians 4:1–2 —As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. *Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. * You can change it to a prayer by praying, "Lord, help me (or "I want to") to be completely humble, gentle, and patient and to bear with others in love. Help me to live a life worthy of your calling."