There are many types of prayer found in the bible. I do not want to dive into all of them with this post. Instead, I would like to talk about two types of prayers that I have incorporated into my life daily. The first type of prayer is what I like to call the “business” prayer. I call it this because as Christians, God has given us the ability and duty to declare His protection, prosperity, and health over our lives and the lives of our children. This for me is normally done in the morning when I first wake up. Granted the term “first wake up” means within the first hour or so of waking up for me. You can definitely do this type of prayer with your spouse. This prayer is where you speak life into your day. It’s when you pray for protection over your household, over your vehicles, over your family and loved ones. It’s when you pray for favor, clarity of thought, answers to questions, healing, and finances. God has given you promises in His word, the business prayer is when you speak God’s word back to Him, and decree His life giving words over your life.
The second type of prayer is what I like to call the “relationship” prayer. This prayer can best be described as a walk in the park with a loved one, where there is a gentle cool breeze, the sun is setting on a beautiful fall evening. This prayer can not be done with anyone present, it can only be accomplished when it’s you alone with God. For this prayer there is nothing on your agenda. You enter into the prayer with a clear mind and a clear conscious. This type
of prayer can feel awkward at first, it can be unsettling not knowing what to say, but I dare you to move past that. If we’re not careful prayer can lose its intimacy with God. Life is full of unexpected set backs, questions, mistakes, regrets, fears, worries, stress. So it’s completely understandable why, when we go to God, that we are constantly asking and believing for His help. But there should be time set aside so you can simply let your hair down, and talk to God. Thank Him for all the good things you have in your life. Let thanksgiving roll out of your heart. Take time to be quiet, not just with your mouth but with your mind. All the ins and outs of your life that occupy your thoughts will still be there when your done spending time with God. The bible says it like this, “Be still and know that I am God.” Plug some praise and worship music in, worship Him in these moments, pick the song that describes how you feel about God and offer it up as a gift to Him. If you had to choose between which prayer you could pray, if you could only pray one type of prayer the rest of your life, I would choose this.
I’ll end with a short story. A minister friend of mine was talking to me about when he was young, around my age. He said that he worked in the ministry for free for around 60 hours a week, and lived in government housing. The only free time he had was Friday night. He didn’t have any money to go shop, but he would go out and window shop just to be away from the church and have a break. Well in his time of prayer he felt like instead of going out on this one particular Friday that God wanted him to go to the church and pray. He was perturbed by this request, he proceeded to get mad at God saying, “I’ve given my whole life, all my time to the ministry. I work for free, live in a run down small little apartment, barely have enough money to eat, and when I want to have one night off and relax you want me to come in and pray?!” After calming down quite a bit, he got quiet and he heard the Lord say this, not audibly but in his heart, “Son, you can go out if you want, enjoy yourself, I just wanted to spend this Friday with you.” And as you can imagine his heart melted, he apologized and enjoyed a wonderful time with God in prayer that Friday. Friends, that’s what the relationship prayer is all about. God wants to spend time with you. Take that to heart.
God Bless,
Jake
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