Why do members of our church feel unequipped to pray? One simple reason is that prayer hasn't been modeled well for them. Prayer has been used as transition points in a worship service on Sundays. Prayer has been used as the rote way of opening and closing church meetings. Daniel Henderson calls these "zipper prayers." Zip the meeting in with a prayer. Zip it out with prayer.
D. A. Carson suggests, "Most of us can improve our praying by carefully, thoughtfully listening to others pray" (Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, 7). In his book, Carson proposes Paul as one model to use. The Psalms are an excellent source of prayer models for us as well. I'd argue they are the best source because they were/are the foundation of prayers and songs for the people of Israel. For the New Testament Christian, they still serve as invaluable sources of prayer and songs for the gathered people of God, His church.
Here's a recent sermon that models how to pray through a Psalm. This short teaching through Psalm 16 was one of my video sermons during the COVID-19 pandemic. It utilizes Daniel Henderson's 4/4 Pattern of Prayer. For more on that, check out this link: Worship-Based Prayer.
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