Our Prayer ‘Toolbox’
‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.’
Ephesians 6:18
In a toolbox, you have all kinds of tools that are for use in situations that are best suited for specific circumstances. It’s great to have tools, but we need to have a range of them so that we are prepared for different scenarios. Tools is a generic name that would include specific tools like a hammer, spanner, or screwdriver for example.
Likewise, when we talk about ‘prayer’ we are talking about general communication with God. However, as Ephesians 6:18 instructs us, we can use all sorts of different kinds of prayer. In our ‘prayer toolbox’ we have the following types of prayer available for us to use:
Prayer of Consecration
A classic example of this kind of prayer would be when our Lord was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion when he prayed:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will be done, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42
The prayer of Jesus was one of consecrating Himself to be willing to forsake his own desire to align Himself with the will of God.
A prayer we could pray ourselves is found within the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is heaven.” Matthew 6:10
I’ve adapted this in my morning prayer to say this: “Let your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, and in my life, as it is in heaven.”
A prayer of consecration is saying to God that we want to and are willing to be for example to “be holy as He is holy in all we do” (1 Peter 1:15).
We can consecrate the food we eat through prayer (1 Timothy 4:4-5). I always try and say “grace” before I eat by praying: “Lord, I thank you for this food and ask that you bless this food to my body and help it keep me fit, healthy, well and strong”.
Prayer of Faith
This kind of prayer is specifically mentioned in James 5:15:
“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and raise him up…”
Jesus also told us to do this when we pray:
“Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24
Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). Faith, we are told is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1). This kind of faith is holding onto a promise of God. The King James bible states that “faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not being seen. The only true substance and evidence we can truly rely on is the Word of God. I love how the Amplified bible puts it “faith is the assurance (title deed confirmation) of things hoped for”.
Imagine a long-lost relative who leaves you a wonderful piece of land and property and the solicitor comes to give you the good news. You cannot at first see the property and land, but when he hands over the official title deeds you can trust and believe that it is actually yours!”
Likewise, we can treat a promise of God, found in the bible as our ‘title deed’.
Knowing the Word of God is important in relation to a prayer of faith:
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7
The thing about faith, is not denying what our physical eyes are seeing, what we can see, touch, smell, feel and hear with our physical senses but rather having spiritual eyes to see and believe the actual reality in the spiritual realm. Aren’t we also told to “walk by faith and not by sight!” (2 Corinthians 5:7). God has blessed us with all blessings, where? In the heavenly realm (Ephesians 1:3). What came first the spiritual (or invisible to our natural senses) or the physical? “By faith we understand that the universe was formed by God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (Hebrews 11:3).
Prayer of Agreement
“Again, truly I (Jesus) tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:19.
Finding someone who can agree with you in prayer is powerful! It’s not just a matter of being in agreement though, notice that we have to actually verbalise a request, i.e. ask for something and be in agreement.
I guess this another reason why it’s not good to be ‘unequally yoked’ in marriage (2 Corinthians 6:14). It’s so important to have a spouse who can stand in agreement with you.
Prayer of Supplication or Petition
Anxiety, stress and worry seems to be pandemic in society today, doesn’t it? The bible, however, has a simple solution:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4”6-7
Jesus, again, is our great example of praying in this way:
“In the days of His earthly life, Jesus offered up both [specific] petitions and [urgent] supplications [for that which He needed] with fervent crying and tears to the One who was [always] able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission toward God [His sinlessness and His unfailing determination to do the Father’s will].” Hebrews 5:7 (Amplified Bible)
Prayer of Intercession
“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere…” Ephesians 6:18-20 NLT
We are to pray for all believers as the above verse tells us. We are also to pray for and intercede for the king, government and for all those who are in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-3).
This kind of prayer can also be used by praying in tongues (“in the Spirit”). Sometimes we don’t know how to pray for someone, but the Spirit can, Himself, intercede for us (Romans 8:26-27).
Jesus, yet again, is our supreme example of intercessory prayer and we can see an example of this in His prayer in John 17.
Prayer in the Spirit
We have just seen how praying in the Spirit can be used for intercessory prayer. However, when we pray in tongues, we can also edify ourselves or build ourselves up, 1 Corinthians 14:4 & Jude 1:20).
Prayer of Praise & Thanksgiving
The Psalms are rich and full of prayers of praise and thanksgiving. We are told to “enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” Psalm 100:4.
Having an attitude of gratitude is powerful! I love that song by Don Moen, that goes: “Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ His son…”
A prayer of praise and thanksgiving could be added to any of the other kinds of prayer. I think it’s particularly powerful to thank & praise God at the end of a prayer of faith; it adds weight to the fact that we are praying in faith.
This may not be an exhaustive list of different kinds of prayer, but I know that it has helped me to think more about how to pray and to be conscious of what prayer could consist of for any different type of occasion.
At the end of the day, the bible is pretty blunt in telling us when we should pray:
“Never stop praying, especially for others…”
Ephesians 6:18 Contemporary English Version
