Praying for ourselves

Praying for ourselves is one of the most difficult topics for many Christians, for we may fear two equal and opposite pitfalls.

On the one hand many Christians can feel that they should only be praying for others, that it would be selfish to pray about their own needs, and that God would not be interested in such prayers. Yet, the prayer that Jesus taught us to say, the Lords Prayer, is as much focused on ourselves as on others, asking for our needs to be met, that we might be forgiving, for forgiveness for ourselves, and that we might be protected from evil. This gives us four categories of prayer for ourselves :
i. for our needs
ii. for our character to become more like the character of God revealed to us in Jesus,
iii. for forgiveness when we have erred,
iv. and for protection against evil and temptation.

The second trap that Christians could fall into is to pray too much about their own needs and themselves, so that the focus moves away from a proper balance between the needs of others and our own needs. This is easily remedied by .
i. Starting our prayer time with by praising God, so that the focus is on Him.
ii. Praying for the needs of others before our own needs.
iii. Focusing on what we need, rather than what we want.
iv. Being grateful for the blessings that we have received where God's goodness to us has exceeded our basic needs, and has given us additional blessings.