Why do we Pray
We pray because God wants us to tell him what is on our minds. Even though he sees and understands our situations better than we do, he still wants to hear from us in our own words.
There are five basic types or sorts of prayer.
The first type is the prayer of praise (God may like this one best). We praise God when we tell him how wonderful he is. The simplest way of praising him is in the name we call him
The second type is the prayer of thanksgiving, or telling God, “thank you”. We thank God for all the wonderful things he does for us. He gives us life; he gives us food, clothing and shelter; he gives us good people in our lives to help us and to take care of us. The simple prayer of giving thanks for our food is called grace.
The third type is the prayer of confession, telling God that we are sorry for what we have done. We tell God we are sorry either when we have hurt one of the people God has created or when we have done some sort of damage to God’s beautiful creation. We tell God what we have done and that we are sorry that we did it.
The fourth type is the prayer of supplication, or asking for help. We ask God to keep us safe, to give us courage in tough times, or to give us the things we need to be strong and healthy. God always wants to hear from us when we are afraid or in trouble and need help.
