PRAYER

ALL TYPES OF PRAYER Prayer is not just about asking God for something. Supplication or making a humble request for something for ourselves from God is just one of different types of prayer, not the only one. In Ephesians 6:18, the Amplified version of the first part reads “Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty.” The word manner in this verse means kind, type or sort. This shows to us that there are many types or sorts of prayer, and this verse enjoins us to pray all the types of prayer, not just one type. By far the most common prayer is the prayer of supplication; asking God to do something for us and our immediate family members. Reverend Kenneth Hagin says most of the time our prayer, Christians and non-Christians alike, is like this ‘Lord, my name is Jimmie, and I’ll take all You’ll gimme,’ or like a man with two children whose daily prayer is like this; “God please bless me, bless my wife and our two children, four of us and no one else, Amen.” We may not use the exact words of these two people when we pray, but if all we think and pray about is ourselves and our immediate family, we are praying only one type of prayer and not praying all types as we are supposed to. This (bless only me) prayer is selfish and self-centered. We owe it a duty to pray for our friends, neighbors, coworkers, people in authority over us; supervisors and bosses at work and people in government- council men and women, mayor of our cities, Representatives and Senators, Governors and our President, even if we don’t like them. Moreover, human needs are many and problem, an unwelcome visitor, knocks on people’s doors indiscriminately. Your needs might be met, and probably you are problem-free. Well, you are fortunate, but there are millions of others around the world who are not as fortunate as you are, who need your prayer. What about taking a little time to thank God for His blessings? Many things that we have and take for granted, some people will rock and roll, praising God if they have five percent of them. Having said all these in order to establish that there are many types of prayer, and that we are supposed to pray all the types and not just one, let us go ahead and discuss some of them.