Focus on who God is, declaring His names, character, and promises. We can easily get into a rut of telling God all of our problems (which He certainly wants to hear) and suggesting how He resolves our problems through our prayers without declaring His power and provision. When we focus on ourselves, we will rarely grow and see beyond ourselves. When we know and claim God, we see ourselves in His perspective, not our own. It’s a yielding experience. Because God created us in His image, we can only understand ourselves within His context.

Whether you use the actual names of God or the character traits of God, you can repeat who God is throughout your prayers, such as…

God, You are generous. You are sovereign. You are Lord. You are provider and redeemer. You are good, kind, just, merciful, and gracious. You are complete.

You can also declare who God is in response to your requests, such as

God, I’m asking for healing for my friend. God, You are healer.

As we declare who God is in the context of our requests and needs, we are essentially yielding all authority to God. We are placing our requests and needs within His will, because, for example, He knows what His healing entails for each person, so when we declare Him as the healer, we are accepting, “I yield to Your plan of healing for this person’s life. I know what I want for my own selfishness or for my loved one’s comfort, but I relinquish my will and preference to yours. You have authority.”

You can also apply this same prayer approach during corporate prayer. As you are prayer as a group and someone makes a request to God, you can continually focus the prayer on who God is by making declarations of who God is. Simple “You are” statements continually yield and remind us in verbal expressions that God is sovereign, and we are not.

If you want to experience the names of God within the context of Scripture, try the Names of God translation, available through Bible Gateway.