How to Pray

One of the biggest tools available to help you have more of God in your life is personal prayer. Jesus gave us the pattern for prayer – a pattern most often referred to as the Lord's Prayer. Look at how his words set the example for how to pray:

1. Address the Father – Our father which art in Heaven
2. Ask for what you need – Hallowed by the name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, deliver us from evil
3. Give thanks – thank Him for the good things in your life, just as Daniel did - see Daniel 6:10
4. Close 'in the name of Jesus Christ', Amen – Jesus taught, “no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6)

This pattern is mostly just a guideline. You can talk to your Heavenly Father any way you need to, so long as your prayer is honest and heartfelt. The important thing is that you start talking to God and start developing your own relationship with Him. If you've never prayed before, or maybe never felt God's influence in your life before, you might start by asking Him, “Are you really there?”

What Happens When You Pray

You've probably had the experience of calling someone on the phone that you haven't talked to in a long time. The phone rings and rings. Then someone picks up – a familiar voice! If you will reach out to your Heavenly Father in prayer, you will find, as have countless billions of people before you – that you'll feel him answer on the other end of the line. It will feel a lot like calling someone you've never talked to before, someone whom you loved, who loved you in another life.

If you want more of God in your life – badly enough to be trying – and if in all sincerity, with real intent, you'll pray and ask the Him if he's there, you may just find you've made contact with a very real, living, loving God.

To describe the experience in the words of a children's song:

“Heavenly Father, are you really there?

And do you hear and answer ev'ry child's prayer?

Some say that heaven is far away,

But I feel it close around me as I pray.”

LDS Primary Children's Songbook, Pg. 12 – A Child's Prayer

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