Starting A Prayer: Dear God, and Other Ways to Begin

Beginning a conversation with God can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. After having a personal and unique relationship with God for years, I’ve discovered there is not one right way to begin a prayer. That said, there is a right attitude to have, and many different ways to begin a prayer.

The most common way to begin a prayer is to address God by name. Phrases like “Dear God,” “Heavenly Father,” or “Lord Jesus” reflect your relationship with God. Prayer is a personal moment where you approach God with humility, reverence, and gratitude.

So, let’s dive in and explore the various ways that we can approach starting a prayer and gain insights into exactly what attitude we should strive for as we pray. Remember, regardless of how we start, God is there with us, helps us, and listens to us.

Beginning Prayer with the Right Attitude

Before we discuss the language we use to approach beginning a prayer, it is important to talk about the heart and attitude with which we begin. Approaching God with the right attitude sets the tone for our entire conversation with God.

Embrace Humility

At the heart of a right attitude before God in prayer is humility. We must recognize our standing before God. God is an infinite, all-powerful, all-knowing, Creator God, and we are nothing close to the sort.

So, approaching God through prayer with humility recognizes our dependence on Him, understanding our need for His guidance and provision, and recognizing His sovereignty over our lives.

As we humble ourselves before Him, our hearts become receptive to His wisdom and will. We open ourselves up to God working in our lives.

Show Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful, powerful thing. It reminds us to reflect on God’s past provision for our lives and His blessings in our lives. Starting prayer with a heart of gratitude shifts our focus from viewing God as a magical genie that grants wishes to a powerfully good and gracious God.

Gratitude helps us value the Giver over the gifts He gives. So, by counting our blessings and approaching God with a heart of gratitude, we can create an atmosphere of thankfulness and joy, fostering a deeper encounter with God.

Seek Forgiveness

Beginning prayer with a heart of repentance demonstrates our awareness of our mistakes and failures and a desire to become more like Jesus. As we confess our sins and seek God’s mercy, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It’s only then that we can approach God with confidence, knowing our relationship with Him is secure and sealed by the work of Jesus on the cross for our sins. Beginning prayer with a heart of repentance, ensures we begin our conversation with God on the right foot.

Surrender in Trust

Lastly, we should approach God in prayer with a heart of surrender. Surrendering is an act of trusting all of our fears, concerns, doubts, and desires to the hands of a loving and all-knowing God. When we begin our prayers with surrender, we relinquish control and choose to trust God’s plan.

Surrendering, like humility, allows us to align our heart with God’s heart, our will with God’s will, and invites and accepts His guidance in every area of our lives.

So, now that we know how to begin a prayer with the right attitude, it’s time to get into specifics. It’s time to see different approaches to starting a prayer and common phrases used to start them.

Different Approaches to Starting a Prayer

In general, there is no one right way to approach beginning a prayer. Typically, people begin by addressing God by name, just like they would any other conversation. After all, prayer is just a conversation with God that recognizes our dependence on Him to meet our needs.

If you are curious about the different types of prayer, then you can check out this article that discusses the different types of prayer and the differences between them. Regardless of the type of prayer, we can approach starting a prayer in a few different though similar ways.

Use the Lord’s Prayer as a Template

The Lord’s Prayer, found in Matthew 6:9-13, is the example prayer Jesus prayed when His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. As such, it can serve as a guide for us on how to structure our own prayers.

Let’s take a brief look at the Lord’s Prayer and how it can be our guide. First, the Lord’s Prayer says,

Jesus begins this prayer by addressing God with reverence. So, you can use the same phrase or a similar one to “Our Father in Heaven” that reflects your personal and unique relationship with God.

Jesus then teaches us to,

• Acknowledge God’s Holiness, expressing praise and adoration for God.
• Submit to God’s will, aligning our heart with God’s desires.
• Ask for daily needs, including physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
• Seek forgiveness by acknowledging our sin,
• Request guidance and protection, demonstrating dependence on God, and
• Close in praise and worship, returning our focus back on God and his nature.

Using the Lord’s prayer as a model can provide a balanced and comprehensive structure to our prayers. We can personalize it and customize it with our own words, emotions, and needs.

If you want to know how the Lord’s Prayer can transform your life, then be sure to check out this article. It goes through each part of the Lord’s prayer and discusses what it means and how you can adapt it for your own specific situations and prayers. This brings us to the second way we can begin our prayers.

Personalize Opening Statements

Your relationship with God is unique. As such, how you relate to Him through prayer is also unique. God loves you, hears you, and cares about you. He wants to hear from you and know how you feel. So, it is wise that we pray to God authentictically and from the heart.

Typically, people use a variety of phrases to begin their prayers, and these can vary depending on personal preference, cultural influences, and religious traditions. Here are some common phrases that people use to begin their prayers today,

• “Dear God…”
• “Heavenly Father…”
• “Lord, I come before you…”
• “Almighty God…”
• “Gracious Lord…”
• “Our Father in heaven…”
• “O Lord, hear my prayer…”
• “In the name of Jesus…”
• “Dear Heavenly Father…”
• “Precious Lord…”
• “Abba Father…”
• “Eternal God…”
• “Creator of the universe…”
• “Loving Father…”
• “Lord Jesus Christ…”
• “Holy Spirit, come…”
• “Great Jehovah…”
• “Merciful Father…”
• “King of Kings…”
• “Lord of all creation…”

As you can see these phrases often set the tone for your prayer. You can choose whichever phrase that resonates with you and where you are in your relationship with God.

Remember, it is more important to talk with God than how you begin your prayer. The key is to be authentic and real with God. That’s how people prayed in the Bible and how we ought to pray today. So, let’s take a look at how some prayers began in the Bible.

Scripture Based Beginnings

Scripture can be a source of examples of ways that we can begin our prayers. Prayers in the Bible often begin with a variety of forms of address, expressions of praise and adoration, and acknowledgement of God’s nature. Here are some common ways prayers in the Bible typically start,

1. Addressing God:
   • “O Lord,” (Psalm 86:1)
   • “O God of my praise,” (Psalm 109:1)
   • “Lord, God of Israel,” (1 Kings 8:23)
2. Expressions of Praise and Adoration:
   • “I will exalt you, my God and King,” (Psalm 145:1)
   • “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever,” (1 Chronicles 29:10)
3. Acknowledgment of God’s Attributes:
   • “Great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love,” (Nehemiah 1:5)
   • “You are the God who sees me,” (Genesis 16:13)
4. Humbling Oneself Before God:
   • “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant,” (Genesis 32:10)
   • “I am a man of unclean lips,” (Isaiah 6:5)
5. Appealing to God’s Mercy and Grace:
   • “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions,” (Psalm 51:1)
   • “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act,” (Daniel 9:19)
6. Invocation of God’s Presence:
   • “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)
   • “May your ears be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night,” (Nehemiah 1:6)
7. Confession of Sins:
   • “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” (1 John 1:9)
   • “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)
8. Acknowledgment of God’s Sovereignty:
   • “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours,” (1 Chronicles 29:11)

These examples show the many different ways that Biblical people approached God in prayer. These expressions can give you inspiration in crafting and beginning your own prayers.

Want to know how to end your prayer? Then check out this article about closing the conversation with God. It offers an in depth look at the most frequent closing “Amen” and what it really means for our prayers.

That said, the language we use to begin a prayer is not as important as beginning. Prayer is an opportunity for us to talk with God and build our relationship with Him.

So, no matter how you choose to start your prayers, pray with sincerity, gratitude, and a willingness to be led by the Holy Spirit. In that way, prayer can become an encounter with God.