| 'When in need, pray.' That would be a good motto. But is asking for help all there is to prayer? God does expect us to ask him for the things we need or which we want him to do for others. But there is more to prayer than just asking all the time. There are at least five different kinds of prayer mentioned in the Bible. They are: adoration, thanksgiving, confession, intercession and petition. It would be helpful to write those five words down in the back of your Bible. Adoration is worshipping God because he is God. It is recognising him for what he is, not just for what he can do for us. Thanksgiving is thanking God for all that he has done. It is not asking for anything more. We should never forget to continually thank God for answering prayer, for saving our souls and for keeping us day by day. All of us sin, even if we are Christians. Therefore we need to confess our sins in prayer to God. Read 1 John 1:9 and remember as you pray that God is always waiting to forgive us when we turn to him. We need to pray for other people, too, and for their needs. This is called intercession. Petition is asking God for the things we need ourselves. Too often that is one part of prayer we use the most - what about the other four? We may not be able to include all of these five kinds of prayer every time we pray. Sometimes we need to send an urgent call to God for help and there isn't time for anything else. But when he answers, let's not forget to thank him for doing this for us. Over a period of a day or two we ought to use every one of these kinds of prayer. Listen to yourself as you pray. See if one or two of these are missing from your prayers. Make sure that all of them are included in your prayer life from now on. A THOUGHT: In everything … with thanksgiving … let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6 BIBLE READING: John 14: 12 - 15; 16: 23 - 24 DAY 15 ARE WE LEARNING TO PRAY? Everything God has created is governed by certain clear laws or principles. For example in the spiritual realm, salvation only comes through faith. It has to be faith in Jesus Christ, but God looks for faith before he can give salvation. In the same way there are certain conditions for prayer. First it must be in the name of Jesus Christ. It is not enough just to add the name of Jesus as the closing words of our prayers. Our whole prayer must be offered through Christ. We cannot ask for anything because we think we deserve it. We deserve nothing, but God recognises the person and name of Jesus Christ and because of Christ, answers our prayer. It would be like someone allowing you to go to a store and buy goods on their account. You may have no money at all, and therefore you are not trying to use your money (which you don't have) but you are using their money and are able to get what you need. Praying in the name of Christ also means asking for the kind of things which Christ would be willing to let us have, it would be no use asking God, even in the name of Christ, for those requests you know very well God does not want you to have, or would not want you to do. Read Psalm 84:11, 'no good thing will God withhold from those that walk uprightly'. Who can use the name of Christ in prayer? Those who belong to him, those who are the children of God. God loves to hear the voices of his children when they come to him in the name of his wonderful Son, Jesus Christ. A THOUGHT: No-one can come to the Father, except through Jesus Christ. John 14: 6 | 
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