Prayer is the door. Jesus is the room.
Everything else on this site assumes something. If you have never settled it, settle it here — it will take less time to read than the rest of the site and it matters more than all of it.
The problem is not that you pray badly.
It is that all of us are separated from God by something we cannot fix from our side. Scripture calls it sin, and it is not primarily a list of bad behaviours — it is a broken relationship with the One who made you. You feel it as distance, as guilt that will not clear, as the sense that you would not be welcome if He knew everything.
God did not wait for you to fix it.
He came looking. Jesus — fully God, fully human — lived the life we could not live, and then died a death He did not deserve, absorbing what stood between us and God. Three days later He walked out of the grave, which is the reason any of this is more than a nice idea.
It is received, not earned.
You do not clean up first. There is no probation period, no minimum attendance, no track record required. It is received the way a gift is received — by trusting the person who is offering it, and saying so.
How to respond, in your own words.
There is no formula and no magic sentence. If you want words to start with, these will do — but say them as yourself, out loud, in your own room.
A prayer you can pray tonight
Jesus, I have been talking to the ceiling and I would like to talk to You. I believe You are who You said You are. I have been running my own life and it has not gone the way I planned. I am sorry, and I am asking You to forgive me and to take over. Thank You that this does not depend on how good my week was. I am Yours from here. Amen.
If you just prayed that — what now?
Tell one person today.
Out loud, to a human being. It makes it real in a way that nothing else does, and it is how you find the people who will walk with you.
Read one Gospel.
Start with John or Mark. Fifteen minutes a day. Meet Him in His own words rather than in anyone else’s summary of Him — including ours.
Talk to Him tomorrow morning.
That is the entire practice. Come back tomorrow. Everything on this site exists to help you keep doing that.
Find people.
You cannot do this alone and you were never meant to. CBA Orlando will help you find a community near you — write to us and a real person will answer.
About baptism
If you have said yes to Christ, the next step Scripture describes is baptism — a public statement that the old life is buried and a new one has begun. Our sister ministry To The Waters walks through exactly what it means and what happens.
Talk to a real person
No campaign, no automated follow-up sequence, no obligation. Write to info@cbaorlando.org and a person will answer you.