Resources to help you pray

Prayer is one of those things that many of us feel we should be doing more of. It can feel difficult to know how to get started, what to pray about or how to make space for it in our day. Below are some resources to help you grow in this area of your spiritual life whether you'd value reading a book on prayer, or using an app to help you engage. You might also like to consider working through 24-7 prayer's Prayer Course either on your own or with some friends. 

How to pray 
Pete Greig, founder of the 24-7 prayer movement, has written this 'simple guide for normal people', which unpacks nine essential aspects of prayer: stillness, adoration, petition, intercession, perseverance, contemplation, listening, confession and spiritual authority.

Fresh pathways in prayer
If you've ever felt like you're the only person who's thought that prayer is a bit strange, then this is the book for you. Discover a variety of ways to engage in prayer as author Julian Hardyman considers what we can do when we don't know what to pray, we feel far from God or we get stuck. 

Prayermate - An app for iPhone or Android users that you can use to generate a list of prayer points. Simply add in people, countries etc that you want to pray for and the volume of prayer points to be generated a day. It can be linked to other organisations such as Operation World or Tearfund to inform your prayers.

Lectio 365 is a daily devotional resource that helps you pray the Bible every day. The app guides you through rejoicing with a Psalm, reflecting on Scripture, asking for God's help and yielding to His will in your life.

London Institute of Contemporary Christianity - The LICC are passionate about whole-life discipleship and a lot of their material is particularly, though not exclusively, aimed at people in the workplace. They have a number of 40 day prayer journeys such as ‘Get Wisdom!’, ‘Trusting God’ and ‘A culture of prayer’ that you can join in with and there are some great creative prayer forums on their website to share ideas with other Christians.

Praying for the world– Many organisations allow you to sign up for daily or weekly emails with information and prayer points. Try www.opendoorsuk.org (particularly their current ‘Live like a North Korean’ feature) or www.operationworld.org.