Ask Bible Answers
What does the Bible say about prayer?
Prayer as asking, praise, and lament before God: Jesus’ pattern, the Psalter’s voice, and the church’s ongoing call to pray.
Scripture context and classic commentary notes below. For a live, retrieval-grounded conversation, Ask Bible.
Jesus teaches how to pray
The disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. He gives what we call the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4): address to the Father, hallowing of the name, petition for the kingdom, daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance. In the same sermon he warns against empty repetition and praying to be seen (Matthew 6:5–8). Prayer is speech to the Father who already knows the need.
Jesus himself prays — at baptism, in lonely places, in Gethsemane, and from the cross. The pattern is not technique but filial trust.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary · Matthew Henry
Henry on Matthew 6 treats the Lord’s Prayer as both a form and a directory: every petition teaches what to desire, and the order teaches what to desire first.
Psalms and the apostolic church
The Psalms are Israel’s prayer book: praise, confession, and complaint. Paul tells the churches to pray “in every situation” with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6), to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and to pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18). Hebrews invites believers to the throne of grace because they have a high priest (Hebrews 4:14–16).
Ask Bible can retrieve commentary on a specific petition or psalm when you want to sit with one text rather than a survey.
John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible · John Gill
Gill on Philippians 4:6 stresses thanksgiving as the companion of petition, lest prayer become another form of anxious grasping.