What does the Bible say about prayer?
Prayer in the Bible is honest conversation with God, made possible through Jesus and helped by the Spirit. What Scripture teaches and how to begin.
In the Bible, prayer is simply talking with God, and it is one of the most astonishing privileges a human being has. Scripture teaches that God is near to all who call on him, that he wants to hear from his people, and that he invites them to bring everything, from praise and thanks to confession, requests, and even complaints. Prayer is not a technique for getting what we want or a performance for others. It is honest conversation with a Father who already knows what we need. The Bible also explains how this is possible: Christians pray through Jesus, whose death opened the way to God, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, who helps us when we do not know what to say. Jesus himself prayed often, taught his disciples a pattern for prayer, and urged them to keep praying and not lose heart. Prayer does not require eloquence. It requires coming.
Prayer is possible because God draws near.
The Bible never presents prayer as shouting into an empty sky. It begins with the character of the God who listens:
The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.
— Psalm 145:18 (BSB)
The only condition in that verse is calling “in truth,” which means honestly. God even invites his people to call: “Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3) That promise was first spoken to the prophet Jeremiah while he was confined, but it shows the kind of God he is. Prayer starts with God’s invitation, not our effort.
The Psalms teach every kind of prayer.
The book of Psalms is the Bible’s prayer book, and it covers the full range of human experience. There are psalms of praise, thanksgiving, trust, confession, and lament. One line captures their spirit well: “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8)
“Pour out your hearts” is not polite language. It allows for tears, fear, anger, and confusion. In Psalm 51, David, confronting his own serious sin, prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10) In other psalms, writers ask God how long he will stay silent. The Psalms show that God would rather hear an honest complaint than a polished lie. If you do not know how to pray, praying a psalm in your own words is one of the oldest and best ways to learn.
Jesus taught his followers how to pray.
The disciples watched Jesus pray and then asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). His teaching begins with a warning against praying for show and against piling up words, because “your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:8) Then he gave them a pattern:
9 So then, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
— Matthew 6:9-13 (BSB)
This prayer is short, but it is complete. It begins with God, his name, his kingdom, and his will, before it turns to our needs: daily bread, forgiveness, and protection. Many Christians pray it word for word; many also use it as an outline, lingering on each line in their own words.
Jesus also taught persistence. He told his disciples to ask, seek, and knock:
9 So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
— Luke 11:9-10 (BSB)
Luke introduces another of his parables by explaining its purpose plainly: to teach the disciples “their need to pray at all times and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). The parable that follows is about a widow who kept coming back to an unjust judge until he helped her. If even he responded, how much more will a loving Father?
Jesus himself prayed.
It is striking that the Son of God needed and wanted to pray. Mark records a busy day of healing followed by this: “Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a solitary place to pray.” (Mark 1:35) Before choosing his apostles, he prayed all night. And on the night of his arrest, in Gethsemane, he prayed with complete honesty and complete surrender: “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
That prayer is a model for us. Jesus told the Father exactly what he wanted, and then entrusted himself to the Father’s will. Prayer is not the opposite of honesty or of submission. It holds both together.
We pray through Jesus and with the Spirit’s help.
The Bible explains why sinful people can approach a holy God with confidence. Jesus, our great high priest, has opened the way:
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
— Hebrews 4:16 (BSB)
This is why Christians pray in Jesus’ name, as he taught his disciples to do (John 14:13-14). It is not a magic phrase at the end of a sentence. It means we come on the basis of who he is and what he has done, not on the basis of our own record.
And when we do not know what to say, God has not left us alone:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.
— Romans 8:26 (BSB)
Few verses are more comforting to anyone who has sat in silence, unable to find words. Even wordless prayer is carried to the Father.
Why some prayers seem unanswered.
Scripture is honest about this, too. Sometimes, James says, we do not have because we do not ask, and sometimes we ask with wrong motives (James 4:2-3). John says that if we ask anything according to God’s will, he hears us (1 John 5:14). And sometimes God’s answer is not the one we asked for. Paul pleaded three times for relief from a painful “thorn in my flesh,” and God answered by giving him grace to bear it rather than removing it (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Jesus himself asked for the cup to pass, and it did not. A prayer is never wasted, even when the answer is “no” or “not yet.”
What the Bible does not say.
The Bible does not say that prayer requires special words, a special place, or a special tone of voice. Jesus warned against babbling as if God were impressed by length.
The Bible does not say that prayer is only for spiritual experts. Tax collectors, fishermen, widows, and a thief on a cross all prayed and were heard.
The Bible does not say prayer is a way to control God. It is a way to trust him.
A simple way to start praying.
Pick a time and a place. Jesus went out early to a solitary place. A few quiet minutes in the same spot each day make prayer a habit rather than an emergency.
Use the Lord’s Prayer as an outline. Take one line at a time and pray it in your own words: praise, God’s purposes in the world, today’s needs, forgiveness, protection.
Pray a psalm. Read Psalm 23, 51, or 62 slowly and turn each line into your own words to God.
Turn worry into requests. Paul tells us to bring everything to God with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). Write down what is on your mind and pray through the list.
Pray with others. The early church devoted itself to prayer together (Acts 2:42), and Jesus promised his presence where two or three gather in his name (Matthew 18:20). James urges believers to pray for each other (James 5:16).
Keep going. Paul’s summary is short and memorable:
16 Rejoice at all times. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (BSB)
Where faithful Christians differ.
Christians agree that prayer is addressed to God, made possible through Christ, and helped by the Spirit. They differ in practice. Some traditions value written and set prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer and historic liturgies; others emphasize spontaneous prayer. Most healthy churches use both. Catholic and Orthodox Christians ask the saints in heaven to pray for them, much as one might ask a friend to pray. Protestants generally pray to God alone through Christ, holding that Jesus is the one mediator, and this site leans toward that view. Christians also differ on posture, on praying in tongues, and on fasting with prayer. All agree that God hears the humble and that the door is open through Jesus.
Beginning today.
You do not need to feel ready to pray. You only need to begin, perhaps with the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps with a single honest sentence. Read Matthew 6 and one psalm this week. And find a local church where you can pray with others and learn from people who have been praying for years.
For more, see the book of Psalms and what the Bible says about anxiety.