The 4 Types of Prayer

By Joshua Elias and Caitlyn Ang

Prayer of Petition

A prayer of petition is when we ask God for a desire that we have. It could be a prayer asking God to help us with a certain examination or to help fix a broken relationship with a loved one. In essence, we are asking God to help us. Does that mean that if we don’t pray, God won’t do good things for us? No. St Thomas Aquinas explains this well: ““God bestows many things on us out of His liberality, even without our asking for them: but that He wishes to bestow certain things on us at our asking, is for the sake of our good, namely that we may acquire confidence in having recourse to God, and that we may recognise in Him the Author of our goods.” God has chosen to make some part of His plan dependent on our prayers. This does not mean that God is not there for us; He is there and He bestows on us many many blessings, but He also chooses to reserve some until we ask for them. In John 15:7, Jesus says: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

However, it does not mean that if we pray for something and it does not come to pass, God does not love us. It simply means that it may simply not be the right time or that what we are asking for may do us more harm than good. God desires goodness for us (Jeremiah 29:11), and He also desires us to partake in the unfolding of our story with Him.

 

Prayer of Intercession

A prayer of intercession is a prayer that allows us to come between two parties (man and God) and unite them in prayer. In essence, it is when we pray that the other may be united with God. Anyone can pray for another. We are all called to pray for another; we are called to be like Christ who is the one true mediator between the Father and Man. Therefore if we are called to be like Christ we are called to take part in his mediating work/ministry.

In and through intercessory prayer, Jesus is inviting us to enter and share in His love and mercy. In Mark 2:3-5, we see how the faith of a group of friends saved the paralytic man. Jesus saw the faith of the friends who brought man to Him, and told the man “Your sins are forgiven”. We too are called to carry our friends to Jesus when they cannot do so themselves.

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Prayers of thanksgiving are how we remember the goodness of God. In thanksgiving, we practise remembrance. We recognise that God is in our everyday lives, and also teaches us to practise being sensitive to where God is moving in the exact moments in our day.

Thanksgiving does not only occur when good things happen in our lives; we can also practise thanksgiving even when we are going through difficulty! We give thanks because we know God is now abandoning us through the difficult times and will also give us greater things through the suffering.

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” – 1 Peter 5:10-11

 

Prayer of Praise

A prayer of praise is when we praise God. The truth is, God gains nothing from our praise. God is full and whole in Himself, and does not need our praise to make Him “bigger”, or to feed His “ego”. God is the perfection of love and that love is self-giving and not self-serving.

Instead, we praise God to remind us of God’s goodness and power, especially through the difficult circumstances of our lives. When we praise God, we are reminding ourselves that God is great and that He is capable of great things; capable of redeeming us and saving us no matter what circumstances we may face in life.

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