This week’s prayer activity is going to be a nice simple one. All you need to do is remember how to spell the word, ‘pray’!
Earlier on in the year, when we were still going into schools to do our regular assemblies and clubs, we explored a way of prayer using a pattern. There are lots of different patterns of prayer, they’re designed to help us pray if we find ourselves a bit stuck.
You might know of some patterns, like the Lord’s prayer that we finding the Bible when Jesus teaches his followers how to pray. You might have seen that some people use the letters of a word to make a pattern to follow., we’re going to talk you through one that we came up with to help us P.R.A.Y.
Let’s take each letter at a time:
P stands for praise
Praise means to say ‘wow!’ about something God has done. Is there anything you want to say thank you to God for? Is there anything in our world that makes you say ‘wow’? What can you praise God for today?
R stands for return
We believe that when we’ve done something wrong, we need to apologise. God promises to forgive us when we turn away from the wrong things we do and return to him. He wants us to be part of his family, to return to him. Is there anything we need to say sorry to God for today?
A Stands for Asking
This is the part of the prayer where we ask God to help others. Once we’ve remembered that God is amazing and we’ve cleared away the things we need to say sorry for and return to him, then we’re able to see more clearly how God can help those around us. The amazing thing about praying for others is that its a wonderful way to help someone when you don’t know what else you can do. For example, I can pray for people on the other side of the world, I might not ever meet them, but God could answer my prayer and completely change someone’s life forever.
Y stands for yourself
To finish off the prayer think about yourself. Jesus teaches us to put other people before ourselves, to not be selfish. But Jesus doesn’t tell us to forget about our own needs too. God wants us to rely on him to fulfil all of our needs. He is there for us in every joy and every sorrow. What do you need to tell God or ask him?
Sometimes praying can be hard. We don’t know where to start, but using this pattern of prayer can help us when we don’t know what to say. So give yourself some time today to make space and P.R.A.Y!