Matthew Henry’s A Way to Pray refers to his organized method for Christian prayer, often known through his work A Method for Prayer. The approach guides you through adoration, confession, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession, using biblical themes to give prayer a clear shape.
You do not need to repeat Henry’s words exactly. Instead, use his pattern as a framework: begin by recognizing who God is, respond honestly to sin, give thanks for grace, bring specific needs, and pray for other people. The structure provides direction without turning prayer into a rigid formula.
Matthew Henry was an English Christian minister and Bible commentator whose writings have influenced generations of readers. His method for prayer gathers ideas from Scripture and arranges them into a practical pattern that helps believers pray with greater breadth and attention.
Henry’s central concern was not elegant language. He wanted prayer to reflect the full relationship between God and the person praying. That means prayer includes worship and dependence, but also repentance, gratitude, requests, and concern for the church, family, neighbors, and wider world.
The method can be used during a few quiet minutes or expanded into a longer devotional time. You might pray through each section in order, or spend more time on the part most relevant to your circumstances. The structure is a guide for thoughtful prayer, not a test of spiritual performance.
Useful principle: Let Henry’s categories widen your prayers. If you usually ask for help but rarely confess, thank, or praise, the method can restore balance.
The five movements in Matthew Henry’s prayer pattern
Different summaries describe Henry’s method with slightly different labels, but the major movements are consistent. They can be remembered as adoration, confession, petition, thanksgiving, and intercession. Some users combine thanksgiving with praise or place it in a different order.
A simple version looks like this:
Adoration: Praise God for his character, authority, wisdom, mercy, and holiness.
Confession: Admit specific sins, failures, wrong motives, and neglected responsibilities.
Petition: Ask God for spiritual growth, wisdom, strength, provision, and help in particular circumstances.
Thanksgiving: Recognize God’s gifts, answers, patience, forgiveness, and daily care.
Intercession: Pray for other people, congregations, leaders, communities, and those who are suffering.
These movements overlap. A request for forgiveness may lead naturally to gratitude, and praise for God’s faithfulness may give you confidence to ask for help. The value of the pattern lies in helping you remember dimensions of prayer that can easily be overlooked.
How to begin with adoration and praise
Henry begins with the character and glory of God rather than with the person’s immediate needs. Adoration turns your attention toward who God is: holy, just, compassionate, wise, faithful, patient, sovereign, and worthy of trust.
Instead of using only general phrases such as “God, you are great,” choose one attribute and reflect on its meaning. You might praise God for mercy when considering forgiveness, for wisdom when facing a difficult decision, or for faithfulness when circumstances feel unstable.
Scripture can supply the subject of praise. Read a short passage, identify what it reveals about God, and respond in your own words. For example, a passage describing God as a shepherd may lead you to praise his guidance and care. A passage about God’s holiness may lead you to worship him with reverence and humility.
Adoration is not an attempt to persuade God to become generous. It changes the focus of your prayer and reminds you that your requests are made to someone whose character is trustworthy. This is especially helpful when fear or frustration has narrowed your attention to one problem.
How confession fits into the method
Confession means bringing sin into the light before God rather than hiding it behind vague language. Henry’s approach encourages you to acknowledge both wrong actions and wrong dispositions, including pride, envy, resentment, dishonesty, impatience, selfishness, and indifference to others.
Specific confession is generally more useful than a broad statement that you have “made mistakes.” Think about how you spoke, what you wanted, what you avoided, or how you treated someone. A clear confession might recognize that you exaggerated a story to gain approval, withheld forgiveness, or allowed anxiety to control your decisions.
Confession should not become a search for reasons to condemn yourself. In Christian prayer, repentance includes turning toward God’s mercy and asking for changed desires and conduct. You can acknowledge the wrong, ask for forgiveness, consider whom you have harmed, and seek practical help to respond differently.
Henry’s pattern also leaves room to confess the good you failed to do. You may have ignored someone’s need, neglected an obligation, refused wise correction, or stayed silent when love required an honest word. Naming these omissions can make repentance more concrete.
How to make petitions specific and practical
Petition is the part of prayer most people find easiest to begin, but Henry’s method encourages more than a stream of general requests. Bring specific needs to God, including spiritual concerns, relationships, work, health, finances, decisions, and responsibilities.
Rather than praying only, “Help me today,” identify the help you need. You might ask for patience during a difficult conversation, courage to tell the truth, wisdom about a job decision, restraint with spending, or strength to care for an ill family member.
Henry also gives a strong place to spiritual petitions. Ask for a deeper love of God, greater hatred of sin, wisdom to understand Scripture, a willing spirit, perseverance in suffering, and compassion toward people who are difficult to love. These requests connect daily circumstances with long-term character.
Petition does not require certainty about the outcome. You can honestly ask for healing, reconciliation, provision, or a desired opportunity while submitting the result to God’s wisdom. That posture avoids treating prayer as a technique for controlling events.
A helpful petition often includes three parts:
Name the situation: Describe the concrete need without exaggeration or concealment.
Ask for the needed response: Request wisdom, provision, courage, healing, forgiveness, protection, or change.
Offer the matter to God: Express trust in his judgment and ask for grace to act faithfully whatever happens.
Why thanksgiving is more than listing pleasant things
Thanksgiving recognizes God’s gifts and care. Henry’s broad approach includes gratitude for creation, daily provision, relationships, salvation, forgiveness, protection, instruction, and answered prayer. It also encourages you to notice mercies that have become ordinary through familiarity.
Try connecting gratitude to particular events. Instead of saying only, “Thank you for my family,” you might thank God for a family member’s patience, a needed conversation, or the practical support you received. Specific gratitude makes prayer more attentive and helps you see how grace has appeared in ordinary circumstances.
Thanksgiving does not mean pretending that suffering is good or refusing to grieve. You can lament a loss and still recognize God’s presence, the kindness of another person, or the strength to endure the day. Henry’s method has room for honest sorrow alongside gratitude.
It can also be helpful to thank God for lessons learned through correction. A failure may reveal pride, poor judgment, or an unhealthy pattern. Gratitude for that revelation does not celebrate the failure; it recognizes the possibility of repentance and growth.
How intercession expands prayer beyond yourself
Intercession means praying on behalf of others. Henry’s method treats this as a substantial part of prayer, not a brief list added at the end. It directs attention toward family, friends, churches, leaders, coworkers, neighbors, strangers, and people facing hardship.
Pray for more than immediate relief. Ask for wisdom, protection, repentance, healing, faithful friendships, needed resources, and opportunities for people to receive appropriate help. A person facing unemployment may need work, encouragement, practical support, and freedom from shame. Someone struggling with illness may need treatment, endurance, good care, and peace.
Intercession can follow the relationships and responsibilities already present in your life. You might pray for one household each morning, one part of your congregation on another day, and one wider concern later in the week. A written list can help you remember people without turning prayer into an impersonal inventory.
Henry’s emphasis also encourages prayer for people you do not naturally notice. Consider those who are poor, lonely, imprisoned, displaced, persecuted, grieving, or burdened by responsibilities that remain hidden from you. You do not need detailed information to pray that they receive mercy, justice, protection, and wise assistance.
How to use Scripture with Matthew Henry’s approach
Henry’s prayers are deeply shaped by the Bible, but using his method does not require you to quote long passages. Read a short section and turn its ideas into prayer. If the passage describes God’s patience, praise him for that quality and ask for patience in your own relationships.
You can also use biblical categories to examine your life. A passage about loving your neighbor might lead to confession about indifference, thanksgiving for someone who has shown you kindness, and a request for practical opportunities to serve. Scripture supplies the substance while your own words connect it to present circumstances.
Keep Bible references nearby if they help, but avoid treating them as magic phrases. The aim is to understand what the passage reveals and respond faithfully. Paraphrasing the meaning in prayer can encourage personal engagement and keep your attention on God rather than on producing a perfect quotation.
A basic Scripture-based process is:
Read a short passage slowly, perhaps more than once.
Identify what it teaches about God, people, sin, grace, or faithful living.
Turn each observation into praise, confession, thanksgiving, petition, or intercession.
Write one practical response you want to remember during the day.
Practical ways to pray through the method
You can adapt the pattern to your schedule. A short morning prayer might include one sentence for each movement. A longer evening prayer might spend several minutes on each section, with a journal or Bible open nearby.
One useful option is to assign a broad focus to each day. For example, you could emphasize praise on Sunday, confession on Monday, family intercession on Tuesday, work and community on Wednesday, thanksgiving on Thursday, and spiritual growth on Friday. The categories still overlap, but a daily emphasis keeps your prayer life from becoming repetitive.
Another option is to pray through one psalm or another biblical passage using the five movements. Mark phrases that reveal God’s character, expose human need, express gratitude, or suggest a request. Then answer each theme in your own words.
Writing can be especially helpful when your thoughts are scattered. A prayer journal allows you to record requests, confessions, and signs of God’s care. Do not turn the journal into a performance record. Its purpose is to support honesty, memory, and attention.
Common mistakes when using a structured prayer method
A structure can serve prayer, but it can also become mechanical if used without reflection. Henry’s method works best when the categories lead to sincere attention rather than hurried completion.
Rushing through every category: A short, attentive prayer is better than a long list spoken without thought.
Using only borrowed language: Henry’s words may help, but include your own honest response to present circumstances.
Confessing in vague terms: Name attitudes and actions clearly, while avoiding self-accusation that has no connection to repentance.
Making every request about comfort: Include petitions for wisdom, holiness, courage, reconciliation, and service.
Praying for others as an impersonal list: Pause over people and consider their actual needs.
Assuming a set pattern earns an answer: Prayer is relationship with God, not a formula that controls him.
Ignoring lament: Honest grief and questions can belong in prayer alongside praise and thanksgiving.
Expecting perfect consistency: Missing a day does not make the method useless; begin again without turning prayer into a burden.
Important warning: Do not use structured confession to feed obsessive guilt. If prayer repeatedly leaves you trapped in fear rather than moving toward honest repentance and grace, speak with a trusted pastor or qualified mental-health professional.
A sample prayer outline based on Matthew Henry
The following outline is not a quotation from Henry. It is a modern example of how his categories can shape your own words. You can shorten it, expand it, or replace every example with language that fits your life.
Adoration: “God, you are wise, patient, and faithful. You see what I cannot see, and your mercy is greater than my failures.”
Confession: “I have spoken defensively to my spouse and allowed fear to shape my decisions. I have focused on protecting my reputation instead of acting honestly. Forgive me and help me change.”
Thanksgiving: “Thank you for the people who have corrected me with care, for the work that provides for my household, and for the strength to face today’s responsibilities.”
Petition: “Give me wisdom for the conversation this afternoon. Help me listen without interrupting, speak truthfully, and accept responsibility for my part.”
Intercession: “Please help my friend who is looking for work. Provide practical support, encourage him when he feels discouraged, and guide the people who can assist him.”
This example shows how the method moves from God’s character to personal honesty, gratitude, direct requests, and concern for another person. The transitions do not need to sound polished. What matters is that the prayer is truthful, attentive, and grounded in faith.
How long should this kind of prayer take?
There is no required length. A person with limited time might spend two or three minutes moving through the categories. Someone using the method for extended devotion may read Scripture, write reflections, and pray for many people over half an hour or longer.
Begin with a sustainable practice. For example, pray through one attribute of God, one specific confession, three thanksgivings, one personal petition, and two people each morning. As the pattern becomes familiar, you can expand it naturally.
Longer prayer is not automatically better prayer. A brief prayer spoken with humility and attention may be more meaningful than an extended session filled with repetition. The method is valuable because it helps you pray comprehensively, not because it requires a particular number of minutes.
How the method can shape everyday decisions
Matthew Henry’s approach can continue after your designated prayer time. Adoration reminds you to judge circumstances in light of God’s character. Confession makes you quicker to recognize your own responsibility. Thanksgiving trains you to notice grace, while intercession keeps other people’s needs in view.
When facing a difficult decision, you might praise God for wisdom, confess any desire to manipulate the outcome, thank him for guidance received so far, ask for discernment, and pray for everyone affected by the choice. This does not remove the need for research, counsel, or careful judgment. It places those actions within a posture of dependence.
The same pattern can shape a difficult conversation. Praise God for truth and mercy, confess your own impatience, give thanks for the opportunity to address the matter, ask for wise words, and pray for the other person’s good. Prayer then becomes connected to conduct rather than separated from it.
Used this way, Matthew Henry’s A Way to Pray offers more than an outline for private devotion. It forms habits of worship, repentance, gratitude, dependence, and love for others. You can adapt the language and timing, but the basic movement remains a reliable way to bring the whole of life before God.
Frequently asked questions
Is Matthew Henry’s prayer method the same as the ACTS prayer model?
They are similar because both include adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and requests. The ACTS model is a modern acronym, while Henry’s method is a fuller, older collection of biblical prayer themes. Henry gives considerable attention to intercession, spiritual duties, God’s attributes, and different kinds of petitions, so his work can be used more expansively than a simple four-part outline.
Can Catholics use Matthew Henry’s method for prayer?
A Christian from any tradition may find the structure useful for organizing personal prayer, although Henry wrote from a Protestant perspective. You can retain the broad movements of praise, repentance, gratitude, petition, and intercession while incorporating the prayers, practices, and theological language of your own church tradition.
What should I do if I have trouble concentrating during prayer?
Reduce the scope and use something concrete. Pray through one short Scripture passage, write a few sentences, or focus on one category at a time. A written list of names and needs can keep your attention from drifting. When distractions arise, acknowledge them briefly and return to the prayer without treating distraction as spiritual failure.
Does Matthew Henry’s method require using his original book?
No. The book can provide richer explanations and many prayer themes, but you can practice the method with a Bible, a notebook, and your own words. Read a short passage, identify a reason to praise, a matter to confess, something to thank God for, a personal request, and someone else’s need.
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