What If We Prayed Like This Instead? | Episode: #051

If you’ve ever struggled to pray consistently, this episode will set you free.

Craig walks you through the different prayer models he’s tried over the years—and why none of them ultimately worked—before sharing the simple shift that changed everything:

Stop trying to pray the “right way”…
and start talking to God like a child.

Featuring a powerful personal story and biblical insight, this episode will help you experience prayer as it was meant to be—real, personal, and life-giving.

00:00 — Welcome
01:16 — The desire for a real connection with God
01:42 — Learning to pray through the Lord’s Prayer
02:20 — A structured weekly prayer system
03:37 — ACTS and CATS model… and why it didn’t stick
04:08 — A Discovery that taught me to pray
04:21 — What if you talked to God like you are His child
05:16 — Why children pray freely (and we don’t)
05:30 — Romans 8:26 — The Holy Spirit helps you pray
06:04 — The most important lesson on prayer
06:09 — A powerful story: my dad’s first prayer
07:16 — Identity changes everything in prayer
07:27 — You are God’s child (1 John 3:1)
07:35 — Final encouragement: just talk to your Father

Connect with Craig @CraigWalkerCaoching

Connect with Craig  @CraigWalkerCaoching
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Sign up for the Truly a Masterpiece Free Workshop: Why Self-doubt Keeps Returning and How to Finally Break Free https://craigwalkercoaching.com/workshop

Join the Masterpiece Brotherhood Men's Group: https://craigwalkercoaching.com/brotherhood

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What if you prayed like this instead? What if you just talked to God like you're his child? You probably wouldn't need an outline or worry about having anything memorized. It would just be an open conversation. Hey friend, welcome to the Truly a Masterpiece podcast. I'm Craig Walker, founder of Craig Walker Coaching, author of the book Shameless, The Life You Were Born to Love, and the creator of the Truly a Masterpiece course and podcast. Now, if you've ever wrestled with self-doubt or shame, that voice that whispers that you're just not enough, or maybe the fear that people are about to figure you out, you're in the right place. I feel you're paying. For most of my life, I lived with fear and insecurity until one night in 2014 when I told God, Enough. Like Jacob, I wrestled with him until he gave me the insights that changed everything. Today, by his grace, I live with more confidence, love, and joy than I ever thought possible. I want to help you do the same. Each week I'll share biblical truths, practical tools, and real stories from people who are just like you, but they won their battle with shame and self-doubt, and they're living that life that God created them to love. So grab a cup of coffee, settle in. This is gonna be fun. Let's get started. And what would happen in your life if if you just had this dynamic prayer life? How would it make you feel if when you talked to God, you just knew you had this real connection? Since becoming a Christian, I've I've just searched for ways to pray that just felt right for me, that would just keep me praying. After trusting Christ, I was encouraged to memorize the Lord's prayer and use it as an outline. I did, you know, reverence for our Father who is in heaven. Holy is your name. Purpose, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Dependence, give us day our daily bread. Cleansing, forgive us as we forgive others. Protection, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Humility. It's your kingdom, your power, and your glory. I was just looking for a system. I wanted something that I could follow daily, something that would just help me to really pray. After becoming a youth pastor, I found something. I thought it'd fit. I taught it to the students. I've taught it to a lot of people. It was a model that I followed for weeks. Each day of the week was a reminder to pray. Sunday was for church services. Monday was for missionaries. Tuesday, that was the day I prayed for task, like the things that mattered to me, my calling. Wednesday was for workers. I prayed for my pastor. I prayed for other church leaders. Thursday, that was for government leaders. This was the only day in the outline that didn't line up with the first letter of the day of the week. So I prayed for our government, our mayor, chief of police, police department. I prayed for the governor, for the president, and other officials. Friday, this was for family and friends. This was another easy day to pray. Saturday, one of my favorites. I prayed for sinners. I kept a list of people I wanted to see put their faith in Christ. And for years I kept it on a three by five card. It was all yellow and dirty from writing on it and holding it and praying over it. I'd write their names in. I dated when I would pray for them, or not pray for them, but when God would prompt me to do something for them, when they would trust the Christ, when they would trust Christ. But I confess, even over time, I became bored with that model. Then I discovered the Acts model, you know, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Well, I followed that for a long time, but I realized that most of my prayers just need to start off with confessions, so I switched and called it the Cat's model, confession, adoration, thanksgiving, and supplication. I admit I'd struggled. I was looking for something to really help me pray. I tried all the models. I never found anything that just really let me just talk to God. I'm not putting down any of these models or any system that helps you pray and follow it. The goal is to pray. But along the way, I discovered something that really set me free to pray. What if you prayed like this instead? What if you just talked to God like you're his child? You probably wouldn't need an outline or worry about having anything memorized. It would just be an open conversation about your love for him, your brothers, your sisters, your friends. You'd talk about the work that he wanted you to do. You'd talk about your struggles, your fears, your faults, your failures. You'd ask him for wisdom. Father, how do you do this? And you'd pay attention to everything that he said. You know, as I listen to Jesus' prayers, read over them in the scriptures, the psalms, the prayers of the apostles, I've just come away with this new freedom just to pray. What if we forgot the memorized prayers and the outlines? What if we quit worrying about how we sounded and did we cover the right thing? You know, I don't think little children, when they talk to their father, worry a lot about those things. And our Heavenly Father suggests that we learn to pray just like that. This has been an extremely helpful scripture for me when it comes to prayer. The Bible tells us in the same way the Spirit helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit Himself intercedes with for us with groanings too deep for words. You know what my take is on that verse? Just pray. The Holy Spirit, he'll make sure that what you said was, you know, as he interprets your heart, that it comes back to the Father just right. Looking back, I thank God for all the outlines I've learned and all the systems about prayer. I thank God for the things that I still get triggered on Saturday to pray for sinners and Sunday for services. But the most important lesson that I've ever learned on prayer is just pray like a child. I'll never forget the first time I heard my dad pray. He was 61 years old. He had just awakened from anesthetic after having a box. He had just learned about the extent of his cancer. His first words were just to assure me that he'd given his life to Christ. And then he asked me to pray. I was surprised, but I did. And I prayed for him, I prayed for all of us and for God's comfort and what was to come ahead. Then I just said, Amen. I looked up and my dad's eyes were still closed, and I thought that he had gone back to sleep. He hadn't. Then he began to pray. This was the first time I'd ever heard, seriously, the first time I'd ever heard him pray in my life. He prayed in his own southern country way, and he politely did the introductions. Lord, this is Marcus. That was his first name. He motioned to me and said, You know, my boy over there, he's been with you for a while. Then he went on just to ask the Lord to take care of all of us, and he just closed with Amen. And you know what? I think it's one of the best prayers I had ever heard. He just talked to God like he was a child. What if you and I prayed like that instead? The one thing that's influenced my prayer life more than anything in this world, without a doubt, is just the knowledge that God loves me. I belong to him. He believes in me and he's for me. That's why John tells us, see how very much the Father loves us. He calls us his children, because that's what we are. I pray you come to know yourself in Christ like that. And it just sets you free to pray to your Heavenly Father with a real connection. And you just pray like you're his child. Hey, I hope this helps. My friends, until next time, may God help you to live that life that you were born to love.