Why Do We Pray?
We pray because God
wants us to tell him what is on our minds. Even though he sees and understands
our situations better than we do, he still wants to hear from us in our
own words.
There are five basic types or sorts of prayer.
The first type is the prayer of praise (God may like this
one best). We praise God when we tell him how wonderful he is. The simplest
way of praising him is in the name we call him: Almighty God; Lord Jesus
Christ; Lord of Lords; King of Kings. All these names tell God how glorious
he is. Many of the psalms in the Book of Psalms are prayers of praise.
The second type is the prayer of thanksgiving, or telling
God, "thank you". We thank God for all the wonderful things he
does for us. He gives us life; he gives us food, clothing and shelter; he
gives us good people in our lives to help us and to take care of us. The
simple prayer of giving thanks for our food is called grace.
The third type is the prayer of confession, telling God that
we are sorry for what we have done. We tell God we are sorry either when
we have hurt one of the people God has created or when we have done some
sort of damage to God's beautiful creation. We tell God what we have done
and that we are sorry that we did it.
The fourth type is the prayer of supplication, or asking for
help. We ask God to keep us safe, to give us courage in tough
times, or to give us the things we need to be strong and healthy. God
always wants to hear from us when we are afraid or in trouble
and need help.
The fifth type of prayer is the intercessory
prayer, where we ask God to care for another person or part of his creation.
God indeed cares for other people without our prayer, but we build our Christian community by asking for God's special
care for one another. Paul's prayer in Ephesians
3: 14 - 21 is a beautiful prayer for the people of faith. Moses
and Abraham asked God to take special care of
his people. The Prayer for the Healing of Children
is an intercessory prayer.
There are also four styles of prayer, which depend on our own personalities.
The first style is devotional, or scripture-based prayer.
Many people like to read a Bible verse or passage that opens a way for them
to talk to God. They often begin their prayers by reading a psalm.
The second style is spontaneous prayer. This prayer comes
from our hearts almost without thinking, and it is usually a prayer of thanksgiving:
"Thank you, God, for the beautiful sunset"; "thank you for
the kindness of my friend."
The third style is contemplative prayer. Many people have
long and involved conversations with God, where they talk things over with
him, always sure that he is listening.
The fourth style is the prayer of action. Some people pray
best while walking or moving or doing something. Sitting still is hard for
them, and they need to add movement to their prayers. For them doing something
(an act of kindness, for example) can be praying. Walking the labyrinth
while praying can be an extremely deep form of prayer.
And we create a sacred space for prayer
by making prayer cloths.
When Jesus' disciples
asked him how to pray, he replied with the prayer we call The Lord's Prayer
or the Our Father (from its first two words.)
My favorite prayer book for small children is Prayers for Little Hearts, illustrated by Elena Kucharik.
For table graces, I like Thank You for This Food, by Debbie Trafton O'Neal.
Two prayers I encourage my class to memorize are the Prayer for New Beginnings and the Prayer of St. Patrick. And each of us can learn to write and pray our own Breath Prayer.
And we always need to pray for our enemies as well as for our friends: The Intercession for Our Enemies
Please send your questions to judy@sundayschoollessons.com
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