how to pray
What does the Bible say about how to pray? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.
14 passages · most helpful first
6But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.
16Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be saved. For the unremitting prayer of a just person prevails over many things.
26And similarly, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself asks on our behalf with ineffable sighing.
17Pray without ceasing.
9Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy. 10May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. 11Give us this day our life-sustaining bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6Be anxious about nothing. But in all things, with prayer and supplication, with acts of thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.
7And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
24For this reason, I say to you, all things whatsoever that you ask for when praying: believe that you will receive them, and they will happen for you.
18Through every kind of prayer and supplication, pray at all times in spirit, and so be vigilant with every kind of earnest supplication, for all the saints,
14And this is the confidence which we have toward God: that no matter what we shall request, in accord with his will, he hears us.
8Therefore, I want men to pray in every place, lifting up pure hands, without anger or dissension.
7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, then you may ask for whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
3You ask and you do not receive, because you ask badly, so that you may use it toward your own desires.
7And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded. 8Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him. 9Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.