Kinds of Prayer

It was once said that if you only ever said one prayer in your life—“Thank you”—it would be enough. The person who said this was making a point about how incalculably, incredibly much we owe God, just for creating us, creating this world, blessing us in numberless ways daily. Of course there are some other helpful kinds of prayers, but it’s surprising how few categories they can fit into.  Here are four that include most prayers, from Bible times until today.

“Thank You!”—It’s true that this should be prayer number one, and the one we use the most, yet it often is neglected in favor of “Gimme,” which isn’t even a valid category. Praise, which is actually different from thanksgiving, can still be included in this category. Praise is recognition of God’s innate greatness and goodness and the favor God shows us, though we don’t merit it. Thanksgiving is recognition of the specific acts that show God’s greatness. Neither receives nearly the acknowledgement it ought to from us.

“I’m Sorry!”—This should probably be number two on our prayer lists, used nearly as often as Thank You. In fact, it can be closely followed by a Thank You—for forgiveness and grace. It’s a daily necessity in most fumbling human lives.

“Yes, I will.”—This is a prayer of obedience, a prayer of willingness and consecration. It sometimes comes in the form of “Send Me,” but may not be a sending away; in fact it probably isn’t. It’s usually a sending into your ordinary day, your ordinary life, your ordinary family, your ordinary job. “Yes, Lord, I will. Send me.” But the minute after this prayer, you’ll likely need the fourth and last category . . .

“Help!!”—This is, in fact, by far the most-used of all prayers, and in one sense, that’s OK. We’re frail and faulty, and we get confused a lot. God is happy to come to our rescue, and we couldn’t begin to count the times He has, most of them completely unknown to us. The problem is, we get it confused with that false “Gimme” category above, as in “Help me get this job, house, car, mink coat, winning score …” and it goes downhill from there.

Valid uses of help prayers are in any kind of difficult or desperate situation, small or large, and right after saying “I will,” and discovering the shocking limitations of your ability to do whatever it was God asked you to do and you so blithely promised.