What this page covers
What does the Bible teach about prayer, and how can I start?
This page is the family overview and the Prayer topic. It covers Jesus’ teaching on prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, praying in distress, thanksgiving and intercession. Thanksgiving, praise and worship may receive their own pages later.
The Bible’s longest book is a book of prayers. The Psalms include praise, thanks, complaint, confession and even curses, and they have been the prayer book of Jews and Christians for millennia. Prayer in Scripture is less a technique than a relationship carried on in every circumstance.
The prayer Jesus taught
When His disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1), Jesus gave them what Christians call the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father (Luke 11:2-4; the fuller form most Christians pray is in Matthew 6:9–13). It begins with God — His name, kingdom and will — and then asks for daily bread, forgiveness and protection. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians all pray it. The WEB-C prints a closing doxology at the end of Matthew 6:13 (“For Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever”). It appears in many later manuscripts but not the earliest ones, so many modern translations place it in a footnote; in the Catholic Mass a similar doxology follows a short intervening prayer.
Praying honestly
Jesus Himself prayed in anguish in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39), asking to be spared and then yielding to His Father’s will. Paul admits that “we don’t know how to pray as we ought” and says the Spirit helps in that weakness (Romans 8:26). There is no requirement to have the right words.
Persistence and thanksgiving
Jesus told a parable so that people would “always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). Paul urges praying without ceasing and giving thanks in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18) — not for everything, but in every situation.
Unanswered prayer
Scripture does not hide that some prayers are not answered as asked: Jesus’ own prayer in Gethsemane, Paul’s three requests about his “thorn” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). These passages suggest that prayer is not a way of controlling outcomes but of trusting God with them.
Take it with you
The prayer reflection worksheet is a one-page guide for praying slowly through the Lord’s Prayer and Philippians 4:6-7.
Passages, in context
Pray like this:
“‘Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy.
Let Your Kingdom come.
Let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also forgive our debtors.
Bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
Sic ergo vos orabitis: Pater noster, qui es in cælis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum; fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo et in terra. Panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.Matthæus 6:9–13 · Clementine Vulgate
The prayer Jesus taught: praise, God’s kingdom, daily needs, forgiveness, protection.
The Sermon on the Mount
When He finished praying in a certain place, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”
Et factum est: cum esset in quodam loco orans, ut cessavit, dixit unus ex discipulis ejus ad eum: Domine, doce nos orare, sicut docuit et Joannes discipulos suos.Lucas 11:1 · Clementine Vulgate
“Lord, teach us to pray” — the disciples ask, and prayer is presented as something learned.
Introduces Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer
In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione, et obsecratione, cum gratiarum actione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum.ad Philippenses 4:6 · Clementine Vulgate
Everything can be brought to God, with thanksgiving.
Paul, writing from prison
Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
Semper gaudete. Sine intermissione orate. In omnibus gratias agite: hæc est enim voluntas Dei in Christo Jesu in omnibus vobis.1 ad Thessalonicenses 5:16–18 · Clementine Vulgate
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything — prayer as a constant posture.
Paul’s closing instructions
In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
Similiter autem et Spiritus adjuvat infirmitatem nostram: nam quid oremus, sicut oportet, nescimus: sed ipse Spiritus postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus.ad Romanos 8:26 · Clementine Vulgate
When we do not know how to pray, the Spirit helps “with groanings which can’t be uttered.”
Paul on weakness and the Spirit
He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray and not give up,
Dicebat autem et parabolam ad illos, quoniam oportet semper orare et non deficere,Lucas 18:1 · Clementine Vulgate
Jesus tells a parable so that people would pray and not lose heart — persistence encouraged.
Introduces the parable of the persistent widow
He went forward a little, fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from Me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what You desire.”
Et progressus pusillum, procidit in faciem suam, orans, et dicens: Pater mi, si possibile est, transeat a me calix iste: verumtamen non sicut ego volo, sed sicut tu.Matthæus 26:39 · Clementine Vulgate
In Gethsemane Jesus asks for the cup to pass — and then yields: “not what I desire, but what You desire.”
The night before the crucifixion
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
Confitemini ergo alterutrum peccata vestra, et orate pro invicem ut salvemini: multum enim valet deprecatio justi assidua.Jacobi 5:16 · Clementine Vulgate
Confess to one another and pray for one another.
The Letter of James, on prayer for the sick
Let my prayer be set before You like incense;
the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.
Dirigatur oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo; elevatio manuum mearum sacrificium vespertinum.Vulgate Psalm 140:2 · Clementine Vulgate
Prayer pictured as incense rising — the psalms as Israel’s prayer book.
A psalm of David
How this differs from related topics
Prayer is the practice of speaking with God. Peace and Anxiety pages include prayer as a response to worry; this page is about prayer itself. A printable reflection worksheet is available.