What is Prayer?

Prayer is essentially a conversation with God. It's a time of communicating your heart to Him and spending time with Him so He too can speak back to you. In other words, it is a two-way activity – where we speak to God, listen with our hearts so He too can speak back to us. That tells us that once we properly and intentionally engage in prayer, it can be exciting, powerful and rewarding.

Here below is an overview on some types of prayer that will hopefully get you started on your own journey of personal study on this topic:

Prayer of Thanksgiving- This is where we show God our appreciation for all the things in your life. Paul teaches us that this is the will of God in Christ for us – that we give thanks in all circumstances (1Thessalonians 5:18). We ought to be thankful for God’s protection, provision, blessing, and above all, for sending His only begotten Son to save us for sin and death.

Prayer of Petition- God wants us to ask Him for specific things we may need in our life. Jesus taught us to ASK – and promised that when we do so, it will be given (Matthew 7:7); and even when teaching us to pray, He told us to always as God to give us our daily bread – that is, everything that we need in our lives – and that is daily. Usually, a prayer of petition is a presentation of our personal needs to our Heavenly Father, trusting that He will indeed provide them.

Prevailing Prayer- This consists of fervent insistent prayers until we receive a breakthrough. That does not mean that we continue in this prayer because we lack faith, rather it is because we have faith that our consistent insistence will touch the heart of our heavenly Father towards us so He can ultimately answer our prayers. A good example of such a prayer is the one in the parable told by Jesus, where widow who kept bothering the judge again and again so he could grant her justice (Luke 18:1-8). And we see that the widow’s importunate prayer forced the judge to succumb to her request simply because she was relentless in her prayer. She could not take “No” as the final answer.

Prayer of Intercession. This one is a prayer made on behalf of someone else because of the intense love and care for their wellbeing – as someone put it, its love on its knees in prayer, for others. Other expressions used for this kind of prayer are: pleading on behalf of the needs of someone else or standing in the gap for others like for instance making prayers of repentance for them. A very good Example is Abraham, who interceded for the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah so that the Lord would not destroy them with the unrighteous (Genesis 18:16-26).

Try and delve further into these types of prayer by conducting a personal study and learn how to employ them in various circumstances – you will be shocked by how effective you can be in prayer. Go ahead and search through the Scriptures for men and women who engaged in the above-mentioned types of prayer and share with someone what you have learnt.