Time to pray
Prayer is an essential element of Christian spirituality. And yet at times we neglect it, and overlook its power, and misunderstand its purpose. In his classic book on prayer, Richard Foster observed that
We all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives - altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the loving and bitter. But what I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not have to be bright, or pure, or filled with faith, or anything. This is what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live by it as well. And we pray by it....
We will never have pure enough motives, or be good enough, or know enough in order to pray rightly. We simply must set all these things aside and begin praying. In fact, it is in the very act of prayer itself - the intimate, ongoing interaction with God - that these matters are cared for in due time.
Wise words indeed. Another writer, George Guiver, said this:
When we pray, we know two things about God. One is that he is very near to us, and is our friend, our brother, sister, father and mother. He is very close to us indeed. However, we also know that he is so different that words fail us. All we can do is use poetry - that is, words that don’t just mean what they say, but which try to point beyond.
In this section of the website, the NSW Council of Churches offers a range of Christian prayers to encourage you to pray, to guide your thoughts, to strengthen your faith. It is our prayer that God will bless you, and that you will know and feel his love, as you engage him in conversation.
On the right, near the top of the page, there are several menus. Click on Selected Christian Prayers to view our complete list of prayers for various needs and occasions. Click on Prayer requests to read about urgent needs, answers to prayer, and send us your prayer requests. Click on Prayer Resources for a guide to helpful resources about prayer.
