When we pray, we are speaking to God directly: thanking Him, questioning Him, calling on Him in our time of need, or just talking to Him like He's our best friend. Prayer brings us closer to God, providing clarity of mind, body and spirit.
There is no right way to pray. As long as you are sincere in your desire to know God, to open a dialog with Him, your prayers will be heard (if not always heeded). You don't have to be a Christian to say Christian prayers, and you don't have to be a Buddhist to say Buddhist prayers. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. If a certain prayer feels right to you, then it's right for you. End of story.
One of the best ways to pray is to just start talking to God. Tell Him about your day, about your worries, about what makes you happy, what made you mad. Say it out loud, or say it inside. It doesn't matter. Ask Him questions, vent frustrations, ask for guidance, tell Him what's going on in your head.
And if you're feeling up to it... thank Him! Thank Him for the things you have - your health, your family, your friends, your car - anything. Thank Him for the obstacles in your life that are there to help you progress. Thank Him for the challenges you face because they will make you stronger (even if you might not want to believe it).
Conversation with God is one of the best ways to pray, but there are many established prayers that are excellent to know, too. These prayers have been around for a long time and have been written and developed by those in touch with the hereafter - which means that these prayers work. Priests, rabbi's, and monk's use similar (and some of the same) prayers when performing exorcisms because, again, these prayers have been proven over and over again throughout the ages to work. They wouldn't bother with anything that didn't.
Below are some prayers that have withstood the test of time and are ready for you to use:
THE LORD'S PRAYER (Christian)
Our Father, Who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
Amen
HINDU PRAYER
Oh God, lead us from the unreal to the Real.
Oh God, lead us from darkness to light.
Oh God, lead us from death to immortality.
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti unto all.
Oh Lord God almighty, may there be peace in celestial regions.
May there be peace on earth.
May the waters be appeasing.
May herbs be wholesome,
and may trees and plants bring peace to all.
May all beneficent beings bring peace to us.
May thy Vedic Law propagate peace all through the world.
May all things be a source of peace to us.
And may thy peace itself, bestow peace on all,
and may that peace come to me also.
BUDDHIST PRAYER
May I become at all times, both now and forever
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those who have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A bridge for those with rivers to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need.
BAHA'I PRAYER (Baha'u'llah)
O ye discerning ones of the people!
Verily the words which have descended
from the Heaven of the Will of God are the source
of Unity and Harmony for the world.
Close your eyes to racial differences.
Welcome all with the light of oneness.
Be the cause of the comfort and the advancement of humanity.
This handful of dust, the world, is one home; let it be in unity.
Forsake pride: it is a cause of discord.
Follow that which leads to harmony.
JAINISM PRAYER
Whatever wrong I have done
By thought, word, or deed
I ask for absolution.
JEWISH PRAYER
Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
that we may walk the paths of the Most High.
And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares,
and our spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation
neither shall they learn war any more.
And none shall be afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.
ISLAM PRAYER (Imam Ghazali)
O Allah, of Grace I ask You its perfection;
and of protection its duration;
and of mercy its completion;
and of health its attainment.
Of livelihood, I ask its comfort and of life its happiness;
and of virtue its completion; and of blessings its totality;
and of graciousness its sweetness;
and of benevolence the nearest.
O Allah, terminate with happiness our final end
and fulfill for us our hopes beyond expectations.
Join with well-being and good health
our early mornings and dusky evenings
and set Your mercy as our final end and outcome.
Pour the abundance of Your Forgiveness upon our sins,
and favor us with the removal of our faults.
Give us piety as a provision
and place our efforts in the strengthening of Your Religion.
In You is our trust and upon You our dependence.
O Allah, strengthen us on the road of sincerity and righteousness
and protect us in this world from that which
will be cause for regret on the Final Day.
Lighten for us the burden of our sins
and bestow upon us the blessings of those
who live a life of Righteousness,
and be sufficient for us
and avert from us the evils of those who do evil.
Free us and free our fathers and our mothers and our teachers
from the fire of hell by the grace of Your Mercy.
O most Mighty, most Merciful, most Generous; the Veiler (of faults),
the Gentle One, the Potent.
O Allah, O Allah, O Allah, O Allah
O Merciful, O Merciful, O Merciful
O most Merciful of the Merciful
the First of the First and the Last of the Last.
The Possessor of unshakable Power.
The most Compassionate to the poor and the destitute.
O most Merciful of the Merciful.
"There is no God except You. Glory be to You.
Indeed I am amongst those who have done wrong"
(surah Anbiyaa:87)
ZOROASTRIAN PRAYER (Zarathustra)
Hearken with your ears to these best counsels,
Reflect upon them with illumined judgment.
Let each one choose his creed with that freedom of choice
each must have at great events.
O ye, be awake to these, my announcements.
NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER
Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes,
so when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit will come to you
without shame.
HAIL MARY PRAYER (Catholic)
Hail Mary
Full of grace
The Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, mother of God
Please pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death
Amen
EGYPTIAN PRAYER (Pharoah Ahkenaten)
I shall breathe
the sweet breath
Which comes forth from Thy mouth.
I shall behold Thy beauty everyday.
It is my desire that I may hear
Thy sweet voice,
Like the North Wind,
That my limbs may be quickened with life
Through love of Thee.
Give me Thy hands,
Holding Thy spirit,
That I may receive it,
And may live by it.
Call Thou upon my name throughout eternity,
And it shall never fail.
CATHOLIC PRAYER (St. Francis of Assisi)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.
SUFI PRAYER (Jalalludin Rumi)
Oh Lord,
I seek more of You than to name Your Name?
We are the flute: our music is all Yours.
The light of the soul sets not and has no yesterday.
Love is the astrolabe of your secrets.
If the light that illuminates the world were to draw near,
The world would be consumed.
God you have chosen me to be Your house.
If I take annoyance at every rub
How wilt I become a polished mirror?
O God, show us all things in this house of deception:
Show them as they really are.
Through love the stake becomes a throne
Through love the king becomes a slave.
Our Soul, the breath of our praise, steals away
Little by little from the prison of this world
Our breaths soar with the choice of words, as a gift from us
To the abode of everlastingness.
Then comes to us the recompense of our praise,
A recompense manifold from God the merciful.
Then You cause us to seek more good words, so that
Your servant may win more of Your mercy.
Verily the source of our delight in prayer
Is the divine Love which without rest
Draws the soul home.
THE SINNER'S PRAYER (Protestant)
Heavenly Father, have mercy on me, a sinner.
I believe in you and that your word is true.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God
and that he died on the cross so that I may now have forgiveness
for my sins and eternal life.
I know that without you in my heart my life is meaningless.
I believe in my heart that you, Lord God, raised Him from the dead.
Please Jesus forgive me, for every sin
I have ever committed or done in my heart,
please Lord Jesus forgive me and come into my heart
as my personal Lord and Savior today.
I need you to be my Father and my friend.
I give you my life and ask you to take full control
from this moment on;
I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.