---
title: "How to Start Praying: Simple Guides for Beginners"
description: "Learn how to pray, find time, work with distraction, and keep going when prayer feels hard."
canonical: "https://prayerguide.co.uk/topics/start-praying"
language: "en"
---

# How to start praying

Begin with one honest sentence. These guides give you small practices that fit real attention, real doubts, and real days.

6 guides in this topic

## Plain help for learning to pray and keeping going.

[**How to pray when you are starting out**Learn how to pray with a short four-step practice, honest examples, and help for the moments when you do not know what to say.](https://prayerguide.co.uk/guides/how-to-pray)

[**Use the ACTS prayer model**Use the ACTS prayer model for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication with a practical example and interactive checklist.](https://prayerguide.co.uk/guides/acts-prayer)

[**Find time to pray in a busy life**Build prayer into a busy day with a small anchor, a one-minute backup, and simple ways to protect attention.](https://prayerguide.co.uk/guides/finding-time-to-pray)

[**What to do when your mind wanders in prayer**Work with distraction in prayer using a focus phrase, a notebook, movement, and a kinder way to return when your mind wanders.](https://prayerguide.co.uk/guides/wandering-thoughts-in-prayer)

[**How to listen for God in prayer**Learn a careful Christian practice for listening in prayer, testing impressions, and avoiding pressure to force an answer.](https://prayerguide.co.uk/guides/hearing-god-in-prayer)

[**When prayer feels hard or empty**Find a smaller way to pray during doubt, exhaustion, grief, anger, or spiritual dryness without pretending to feel better.](https://prayerguide.co.uk/guides/when-prayer-feels-hard)

Need a quick start?

**Use the first practice in any guide. It takes two to five minutes.**[Write a short prayer](https://prayerguide.co.uk/tools/prayer-builder)