Lots of people want to pray better but don’t know how. Here is a model prayer from Nehemiah 1. It breaks down into a helpful teaching tool that has improved my own praying. 

Start by praying more about God than you. Invoke characteristics and works of God more than your problems. Say things such as “Our Father,” “God, you are good all the time,” or “Jesus, you’re human, so you get this.”

It focuses your faith like it focused Nehemiah’s: “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love” (Nehemiah 1:5).

Nehemiah also confessed his sins (verse 6). His confession led to repentance, which is the catalyst for real, heartfelt change. And personal change is the path to changing the world. Start with the person in the mirror.

Even though God knows everything, he wants you to ask in prayer. When you ask, you will pay attention more closely for the answer. So ask like Nehemiah: “Give your servant success” (verse 11).

Prayer, however, must not be a way of getting things from God, as if he’s a vending machine. Nehemiah spoke the word servant 8 times in these 11 verses. He wasn’t praying as if he was the lord or the master; that’s God. He was praying as a servant. It’s all about God.

There’s a name for this teaching tool. It’s called P-R-A-Y. Praise. Repent. Ask. Yield. Use that outline for your praying this week.