How to Pray
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Before you pray, there are a few things you need to remember. Today, R.C. Sproul helps us understand several simple yet critical elements of God-honoring prayer.
With your donation of an amount, request The Valley of Vision, a book of Puritan prayers to help enrich your own prayer life. You'll also get digital access to R.C. Sproul's video teaching series Prayer and the accompanying study guide:
Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Request the digital teaching series and study guide with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global
Join us at one of our upcoming Renewing Your Mind Live events: http://renewingyourmind.org/events
Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When people on old entered into conversations with God, like Jacob, they wrestled with God. |
| 0:07.5 | They stayed at it all night. |
| 0:10.4 | They were persistent. |
| 0:12.2 | They were zealous because their concerns that they brought before God came out of the depths of their own agony, out of the anguish of their situation, |
| 0:23.6 | and so they cried out, out of the depths of their heart, to God. |
| 0:36.6 | I'm sure we can all come up with various reasons why our prayer lives are not what we would like them to be. |
| 0:43.5 | But as you'll hear today from R.C. Sprawl, one of the main reasons is that we don't know how to pray. |
| 0:49.7 | And we can take comfort knowing that even the disciples had to ask Jesus to teach them to pray. |
| 0:56.5 | This is the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and today we are beginning a new Saturday |
| 1:01.9 | series on prayer. Over six weeks, Dr. Sprawl will help us see what prayer looks like. He'll explain |
| 1:08.8 | key elements of prayer, walk us through the Lord's |
| 1:11.7 | prayer, and even consider how prayer works in relation to the sovereignty of God. This practical |
| 1:18.1 | series can be yours when you give a donation in support of renewing your mind at renewingermind.org |
| 1:24.6 | when you click the link in the podcast show notes. |
| 1:31.6 | We'll unlock the series and study guide for you in the free Ligonier app, |
| 1:35.8 | and we'll send you a bonded leather edition of the Valley of Vision. |
| 1:39.6 | R. C. Sproles said the Puritans were a praying people, |
| 1:43.7 | and the Valley of Vision is a collection of some of their excellent prayers. |
| 1:44.3 | So request this resource offer before it ends at midnight tonight. |
| 1:49.0 | So what does prayer look like? |
| 1:51.1 | Here's Dr. Sprole. |
| 1:55.7 | Anyone who's ever listened to me lecture for any period of time quickly realizes that I love the Old Testament scriptures |
... |
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