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There are all sorts of prayers. When I googled the different types of Christian prayers some sites said 4, others 7 and others 10. I have put together a general list:

1. Giving thanks or thanksgiving prayer for what God has done for us or given us.
2. Prayer of praise or blessing God for who he is.
3. Lamenting prayers where we bring what troubles us to God – for example anxiety, doubts and despair.
4. Petitioning God or praying for God to give us what we need.
5. Deliverance prayers, asking God to rescue us or deliver us from danger, and evil.
6. Repenting, or asking God to forgive us for our misdeeds or alternatively, for something we should have done but did not do.
7. Guiding prayers, asking God to give us directions of the best way forward.
8. Interceding, or asking for something family, friends, our community, our nation or the world needs.

When we pray, how do we pray and what do we say? Do we give God a big list of wants and needs? Do we tell our loving Father and creator of the universe how we want these prayers answered? Do we become despondent if prayers aren’t answered how we want and within a timeframe we feel is appropriate?

Have we ever stopped and asked God what he wants us to pray for and how he wants us to pray? Prayer is communication with our loving God. It is a two-way street. We must learn to draw close to Him and listen to what is on His heart and what He desires. The Bible gives us a good blueprint to follow to get into His presence:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100:4-5 (NIV)

So we enter His gates – make our way over the threshold, past the barrier of the walls around the courtyard by thanking Him for what He has done. What barrier might we encounter to entering His gates? Often it’s something we have done or failed to do, e.g. pride, anger, selfishness, not prioritising getting close to God or avoiding god as we know we will be convicted of something.

Next we enter His courts by praising Him. When we enter His courts we are getting closer to Him and going deeper. When we praise we are talking about who He is and His characteristics.

However, to get up close to God and fully enter His presence, we must do more:

Exalt the Lord our God
    and worship at his footstool;
    he is holy.

Psalm 99:5 (NIV)

The ninth type of prayer is worship. We enter His presence by worshiping at His footstool. Often we use the words worship and praise synonymously, however, worship and praise are different. Focus on the Family state that praise is the fruit of the lips, it is communicated by spoken word or song or another creative expression. Worship, on the other hand, is the fruit of the heart, it is about love and appreciation, it is losing yourself in adoring God and utterly giving your all. You can worship in silence.

So once we have transitioned to worshiping, we can spend time at God’s feet and listen to Him. We can grow to know Him. We can ask Him what and how He wants us to pray. We can be still and rest in His presence.

From this position, powerful prayers are birthed, where we co-labor to bring about God’s good plans.

I’d love to hear about your prayer and intercessory life, as well as how you draw close to God. If you’d like to comment or subscribe so you don’t miss any posts, please do so below. Alternatively, you can email me at admin@Jesus4Generations.com. Please feel free to share this blog with anyone. God bless you and your family.

Sources:

• The idea for this post came from my deep love of prayer and the preaching of Pastor Bill Johnson https://bjm.org/
• Focus on the Family
• https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/types-of-prayers-we-see-in-the-bible.html
• https://www.cathedralstm.org/about-our-catholic-faith/expressing-our-faith/four-basic-forms-prayer/
• https://thewordfresno.org/five-types-of-prayer/