Prayer & Worship

I want to pray but I never know what to say. It comes out clumsy and I give up before I have really started. How do I actually begin?

About four minutes into praying my mind is on emails and what is for dinner. How do I stay present instead of drifting off?

My prayers have started to sound like a script. I am reciting phrases rather than talking to anyone. How do I get honest again?

I have noticed I only pray when I need something. It feels like I am treating God as customer service. How do I change that?

I mean to pray every day and then the week runs away with me. How do I build a habit that survives a genuinely busy fortnight?

I sit down with a Bible and a coffee and genuinely do not know what to do for the next twenty minutes. What does a quiet time actually look like?

Pray without ceasing sounds impossible with a job and two small children. What is that supposed to look like on an ordinary Tuesday?

I freeze when it is my turn to pray out loud in a group. Everyone else sounds fluent and I sound like an idiot. How do I get past this?

I tell people I will pray for them and then I completely forget. How do I actually carry someone in prayer rather than just saying it?

I know I am supposed to pray for the person who hurt me and I cannot make myself do it. What would I even say?

Half my prayers feel too small and too selfish to bother God with. Should I really be praying about a parking space and a job interview?

If God is going to do his will regardless, what is the point of asking him for anything? Does praying actually change what happens?

People at my church talk about fasting and I have never done it. What is it actually for, and how would I start without making a mess of it?

Everyone around me at church has their hands in the air and I am just standing there feeling nothing. Am I doing worship wrong?

Praising God while my life is falling apart feels dishonest, like I am putting on a performance. Is worship worth anything when I do not feel it?

I talk to God the way I talk to a mate in the pub, and lately I wonder whether I have lost any sense of who I am talking to. Is casual prayer disrespectful?

Worship for me means an hour of singing on a Sunday. What is it supposed to look like on a Wednesday afternoon at work?

I read a chapter of the Bible in the morning and by lunchtime I could not tell you a word of it. How do I make any of it stick?

When I listen back to my own prayers they are almost entirely requests. How do I build real thankfulness in without it sounding forced?

My partner and I have never prayed out loud together and it now feels far too awkward to suggest it. How do we start?

I have said the Lord's Prayer since primary school and it goes past me without touching the sides. Is there more in it than I am getting?

I tack in Jesus name onto the end of every prayer out of pure habit. What is that phrase actually supposed to mean?

Between work and small children I am never alone and never quiet. Where is a person in my situation supposed to find time alone with God?

When things are really bad my praying is not sentences, it is crying and repeating the same word over and over. Does that even count?

I complain about politicians constantly and I have never once prayed for one. Where do I start when I do not respect them at all?

I have not properly prayed in months and now the guilt about it makes it worse. How do I come back when it feels like I have no right to?

Someone told me unconfessed sin blocks your prayers, and now I second guess myself before I speak. Is God actually refusing to listen to me?

I want to seek God with everything rather than fitting him around the edges of my life. Where does a person even begin with something like that?