hey guys today i want to give you a prayer tip that i learned all the way back in high school i’ve always sort of thought about prayer as just asking god for stuff right maybe that’s how you view prayer as well and if you do then i think you’re missing out on some other dimensions to prayer that we’re going to talk about in today’s video i think a great way to think about prayer is just with the pray acronym this is what we call the pray method of prayer try these four things instead of just asking for stuff from god start off by praising god the psalmist writes in psalm 100 verses 1 through 3 shout with joy to the lord all the earth worship the lord with gladness come before him singing with joy acknowledge that the lord is god he made us and we are his we are his people the sheep of his pasture what i like to do now when i start off in my prayer time is just to praise god be thankful to god tell him what i’m thankful for again this is such a great way to start off prayer for me i like to put on some worship music i’m a big music guy so i love work just good solid worship music let that kind of set the tone for me and whether it’s just praising god for a few minutes up front or sometimes i just kind of get caught into the mode of praising god and telling him what i’m thankful for i encourage you to try doing this next time you pray in fact you can use psalms like this one or other psalms in the bible to sort of trigger that praise time at the beginning of prayer that’s the first thing that’s the p now the r stands for repentance isaiah 6 verse 5 it says then isaiah said it’s all over i’m doomed for i’m a sinful man i have filthy lips i live among a people with filthy lips yet i’ve seen the king the lord of heaven’s armies now if you go back and read this in context isaiah had just encountered this vision of god and he couldn’t do anything but fall to his face and utter words like these i think it’s good at this point once you’ve spent some time praising god just to just like isaiah just to say god i’m i’m a sinner i’m i’m imperfect and before you even move forward in your prayer time just spend a little time telling him what you’ve done allow god to bring to mind some of the stuff from the day or from the week that you recognize as sort of a barrier for you so be repentant of that tell him that you’re sorry give him an opportunity to convict you of sin in your life before you move on to the next thing and then the next thing is finally the a and that is what most of us think about when we think about prayer now it’s time to ask him for what you need philippians 4 6 says don’t worry about anything instead pray about everything tell god what you need and thank him for all that he’s done now over the years i’ve tried lots of ways to sort of keep track of my prayer requests i used to journal i had several journals over the last 30 or 40 years currently i actually use an app on my phone and i just keep multiple lists you know prayer lists for my family prayer lists for my friends things like that and i keep those really on my phone so that when i get to this asking point of prayer i can pull up those lists and i can do what this verse is saying i can pray about everything now i’ve learned it’s okay to tell god what you need even though he’s not going to necessarily answer all of your prayers and what you want might not really line up with what you need but that’s okay god gets it god’s a big god he can sort through our prayers he’s not going to answer all of them but god’s word does say to bring those requests before god and by the way if you’re struggling with a distraction during your prayer time maybe you need to pray about that thing that’s distracting you so spend some time asking in prayer instead of just worrying about stuff in your life all the time and then finally and i love this last one then it’s time to yield jesus himself in the garden of gethsemane before he went to the cross he said father if you are willing please take this cup of suffering away from me yet i want your will to be done not mine this to me is the perfect picture of yielding yielding in your prayer time is when you just stop you know so far you’ve done all the talking but at the end of your prayer time and i love this it took me a while to get used to this but now it’s my favorite part of prayer you just stop and you let god speak to you you tell him look these are my requests this is what i’ve brought to the table but now god i want your will to be done you speak to me now at first when you first try to yield it’s probably going to be weird and you’re not going to be sure if you’re doing it right but i think over time if you can learn to yield to the holy spirit you’ll begin to listen to god in your prayer time it won’t just be a monologue from you to him but it’ll help you to develop a real relationship with god which is what the pray method is all about so next time when you go to pray praise repent ask and then yield