Christian Prayer Times

lords prayer words - traditional and contemporary prayers

Prayer Times

This website contains several inspiring prayers for times when you need to reach out to God and pray. It covers daily prayer - for the morning, work, meal times and evening, and for key celebrations through the year, such as Easter and Thanksgiving. Here you'll find some useful set prayers that can be used to guide your times of devotion.

Prayers for the Day

Praying in daily life is as important as breathing. Just as we all need oxygen to live, we need God's presence in us for us to be fully alive. On this site there are four pages devoted to aspects of daily living. You may wish to begin the morning in prayer, offering yourself afresh to God for the day ahead. As you eat your meals, why not spend a moment in reflection and thanks before dining. In the afternoon, take five minutes out to dwell on the Lord and His faithfulness. And as night falls, why not thank God for His goodness and pray at bedtime?

resources on this page

Prayers through the year
Prayers for the day
Prayer ideas for bedtime

We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.

Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours.

Oswald Chambers (Scottish teacher, writer and minister)

Praying Before Events in the Day

The Lord's Prayer is a popular daily prayer.

There's a long tradition of christian communities that place a high value on praying before activities or events. The religious monastic orders have a rule of life which bids them to pray at specific times of the day - sometimes in preparation for an activity, at other times to offer thanksgiving prayers to God for the outcome and the results of prayer. At other times they may intercede on behalf of people and world events.

However, this pattern of daily community prayer ritual is not just restricted to the orders. The Northumbria Community have developed a daily office based on ancient celtic spiritual life. Anyone who joins this movement is invited to follow this way of prayer through the day. The office is divided up into morning prayer, a short midday prayer, evening prayer and an (optional) compline to end the day. This pattern of regular spiritual focus engenders an awareness of God throughout the day, and places prayer before, and after the events in life. The community is located at Chatton, Northumberland. However, one does not have to live there to follow this way of life and the movement has many adherents in the UK and a growing presence in the USA.

Prayer through the year

a contemporary prayer of thanks suitable for Thanksgiving Day

This website also offers free prayer resources for the year ahead. We begin with prayer for the New Year, often a time associated with making resolutions and starting new activities and hobbies, and even changing of direction in terms of work or life generally. In February, our minds turn towards the 40 day period of prayer and abstinence known as Lent. Here you'll find some children's resources for this period in the church calendar, as well as prayers from the Anglican and Catholic traditions. There's also a dedicated page for Easter Sunday, with various reflections, videos and children's prayers and activities.

As the seasons change and the autumn falls, our minds turn towards thanking God for all his goodness and provision. Here there are two resource pages - one for Harvest time, and another for Thanksgiving Day, both with quotes, songs, and prayers for giving thanks and praise to God. With the closing of the year, we celebrate the great miracle of the incarnation. "Emmanuel" means "God with us" - Christ, the Son of God, born into our world. Here you'll find Christmas prayers for children and adults, as well as quotes and an inspiring contemporary poem suitable for festive services and gatherings.

Bedtime Prayer

Julie Palmer from Prayerscapes gives us three great tips for praying to God at night time :-

learn more about how to pray to God in our prayers and petitions section