21 Types of Prayer
1 SIMPLE PRAYER
“In Simple Prayer [The Lord’s Prayer]
we bring ourselves before God just as we are,
warts and all. Like children before a loving father, we open our hearts and
make our requests.... We simply and unpretentiously share our concerns and make
our petitions.”
2 PRAYER OF THE FORSAKEN
The prayer we pray when we sense that we have been abandoned by
God. “The biblical metaphor for these experiences of forsakenness is the
desert.... Saint John of the Cross named it ‘the dark night of the
soul.’”
3 EXAMINING PRAYER
“Examining prayer (AKA Prayer of
Examen) has two basic aspects, like two sides of a
door. The first is the examination of consciousness through which we discover
how God has been present to us throughout the day and how we have responded to his
loving presence. The second aspect is an examination of conscience in which we
uncover those areas that need cleansing, purifying, and healing.”
4 THE PRAYER OF TEARS
“What is it, this Prayer
of Tears? It is being ‘cut to the heart’ over our
distance and offense to the goodness of God (Acts 2:37). It is weeping over our
sins and the sins of the world.”
5 THE
PRAYER OF
RELINQUISHMENT
The
prayer of relinquishment is “a grace-filled releasing of our will and a flowing
into the will of the Father. It... moves us from the struggling to the
releasing.”
6 FORMATION PRAYER
“The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion
with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we
are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son. The process of
transformation is the sole focus of Formation
Prayer.”
7 COVENANT PRAYER
“Covenant Prayer is a profound interior heart call to a God-intoxicated life. It
leads us to the crossroad of personal decision.
It guides us through the valley of sacred commitment. It beckons us
up the alpine pathway of holy obedience.”
8 THE PRAYER OF ADORATION
“When our reply to God is most direct of all, it is called
adoration. Adoration is the spontaneous yearning of the heart to worship,
honor, magnify, and bless God.... We ask for nothing and cherish him.”
9 THE
PRAYER OF REST
“Through
the Prayer of Rest God places his children in the eye of the storm. When all around
us is chaos and confusion, deep
within
we know stability and serenity.... While a thousand frustrations seek to
distract us, we remain focused and attentive. This is the fruit of the Prayer of Rest.”
10 SACRAMENTAL PRAYER
“Sacramental Prayer (AKA Liturgical
Prayer) is incarnational prayer. In sacramental prayer
we can be lifted into high, holy reverence by the richness and depth of a
well-crafted liturgy.... or through the warmth and intimacy of spontaneous worship.”
11 CONTINUAL PRAYER
Continual prayer (AKA unceasing prayer) is continual conversations with God.
12 THE PRAYER OF THE HEART
“The Prayer of the Heart is the
prayer of intimacy. It is the prayer of love and tenderness of a
child to Father God. [Often called ‘abba prayer.’] Like the
mother hen, who gathers her chicks under her wings, we, through
the Prayer of the Heart, allow God to gather us to himself—
to hold us, to coddle us, to love us (Luke 13:34).”
13 PRAYING SCRIPTURE
“In Scripture Prayer (AKA Meditative
Prayer) the Bible ceases to be a quotation dictionary
and becomes instead ‘wonderful words of life’ that lead us to the Word of life.
It differs from the study of Scripture. Whereas the study of Scripture centers
on exegesis, the meditation upon Scripture
centers on internalizing and personalizing
the passage. The written word becomes a living word addressed to
us.”
14 CONTEMPLATIVE
PRAYER
“In
its most basic and fundamental expression, Contemplative
Prayer is a loving attentiveness to God....[The goal
of contemplative prayer] is union with God.”
15 PRAYING THE ORDINARY
“We pray the ordinary in three ways: first, by turning ordinary experiences of life into
prayer; second, by seeing God in the ordinary experiences of life; and third,
by praying throughout the ordinary experiences of life.”
16 PETITIONARY PRAYER
“When our asking is for ourselves it is called petition; when
it is on behalf of others it is called intercession. Asking is at
the heart of both experiences.”
17 INTERCESSORY PRAYER
“If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it
is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer.
Intercession is a
way of loving others.”
18 HEALING PRAYER
“Healing Prayer is part of the normal Christian life. It should not be elevated
above any other ministry in the community of faith, nor should it be
undervalued; rather, it should be kept in proper balance. It is simply a normal
aspect of what it means to live under the reign of God.”
19 THE PRAYER OF SUFFERING
In the Prayer of Suffering we leave far behind our needs and wants, even our transformation
and union with God. Here we give to God the various difficulties and
trials that we face, asking him to use them redemptively. We also
voluntarily take into ourselves the griefs and sorrows of others in order to
set them free. In our sufferings those who suffer come to see the face of the suffering
God.”
20 AUTHORITATIVE
PRAYER
“In Authoritative Prayer we are calling forth the will of the Father upon the earth. Here
we are not so much speaking to God as speaking for God. We are not asking God
to do something; rather we are using the
authority
of God to command something done.”
21 RADICAL PRAYER
“Radical Prayer goes to the root, the heart, the center. The word radical itself
comes from the Latin radix, which means root.... It dares to believe that things can be different.
Its aim is the total transformation of persons, institutions, and societies. Radical Prayer, you
see, is prophetic.”
Based on Richard Foster’s book
Prayer, Finding the Heart’s True Home
