TYPES OF PRAYER

Prayer is one of the oldest manifestations of religion. The forms that prayer takes in the religions of the world, while varying, usually follow certain fixed patterns. There are different types of prayers that you may use on different occasions. Some of the types of prayer include the following:

1.  Intercessory prayer: It's when you pray for someone else who's in need. Whether spiritual or physical intercession, it is a prayer for God to work in their lives. Intercessory prayer is important today because when you pray for others, you are asking God to work in their lives. This can be a way that believers can join God in His work of saving souls for eternity. Interceding for others is not only a privilege, but also a duty that God places on you. Today you can intercede for family members, friends and colleagues. You can pray that God will work in their lives, bringing them to salvation. 

2. Prayer of forgiveness:  This is when you come to God with a sincere and repentant heart and ask Him for forgiveness for your sins. When you pray to God, you are begging for forgiveness. You understand that sin separates you from God, but through forgiveness you can find peace, understanding, and guidance. It gives your Heavenly Father great joy that you are experiencing His forgiveness. And you can also experience a soothing joy when you forgive those who hurt you.

3. Corporate prayer: This is when you pray with a group of people united in unanimity. This may be when the family comes together to pray, perhaps during worship. Praying with others leads to awakening. In doing so, you bear each other's burdens and thereby fulfil the law of God.

4.  Secret prayer or personal prayer: This is when you pray alone. This prayer is the most important prayer for you. It is the strength and life of the soul. For when you come with life open to Him, He heals the broken-hearted and binds up wounds. You can offer your prayers to God in a secluded place or when you are walking down the street. You can pray silent prayer in the busiest of circumstances. And you can know that God inclines His ear to your petitions. By being in prayer throughout the day, you can walk with God and bear fruit to His glory.

5. Praise and thanksgiving: Prayers of praise originated from meditation or the experience of religious elevation and have used various patterns in both public and private ceremonies. Praise among most ancient peoples was expressed in a hymn, which was primarily a laudatory prayer (whether ritual or personal) to the gift of the created world. Thus, the contemplation of the grandeur of the universe often gives rise to prayer, which is not always completely free from the divine in everything. Praise - in addition to caring for the created world - plays an important role in the prayer of mystics, for whom it is a form of worship. Praise in this case is an essential element of mystical experience and glorifies God no longer for His works, but for Himself, His greatness and His mystery. When the great works of God become a subject of praise, it becomes a blessing and thanksgiving. Even when the words for thanksgiving are absent, the essence of thanksgiving is revealed. Prayers during meals give thanks for the blessings of the earth and are associated with offerings. Thanksgiving is seen as a human response, as a spiritual response to the benefit received. By cultivating this expected response, praise and thanksgiving are central to prayer.

6.  Adoration: Adoration is generally considered the noblest form of prayer, a kind of prostration of the whole being before God. Among the adherents of indigenous religions, even if the prayer of request prevails, they are seized by a feeling of fear and awe before the spiritual power of everything that is endowed with the power of the sacred is prohibited due to involvement in the sacred. To express their admiration, people often fall to the ground and prostrate themselves. The feeling of humble reverence is also expressed by body movements: raising hands, touching or kissing a sacred object, deep bowing of the body, kneeling with the right hand on the mouth, prostrating or touching the forehead to the ground.

7.  Mystical union or ecstasy: Ecstasy literally means a departure from, a tearing away from, or a surpassing of human limitations, as well as meeting with and embracing of the divine. It is the merging of living being with Supreme being in which the mystic experiences a union: "God is in me and I in him." The mystic experiences God in an inexpressible encounter that is beyond mundane human experiences. Mystical union may be a clear and conscious continuation of contemplative prayer, or it may take a more passive form of a “seizing” by God of the one who is praying.

8. Conversational prayer: In it a person enters into an informal conversation with God about daily affairs, seeking guidance and counsel, or expressing gratitude for life and well-being.

9. Meditative prayer:  In it a person reflects on spiritual topics and the relationship of the divine to the human.

10. Ritual prayer: It takes the form of reciting or reading of well-known prayers.

These forms of prayer are not mutually exclusive, and the type of prayer will depend on the needs and circumstances of each individual.