Series on Prayer at Fairlawn CRC: Four Basic Types of Prayer

Prayer Course, Session VI, 24th Oct 2010
Four Basic Types of Prayer

I. Adoration
During the Protestant Reformation in France, students at the Sorbonne in Paris would gather along the banks of the River Seine and sing psalms for hours at a time. Given the state of Paris and of the Sorbonne now, that may will be hard to imagine. However, as the students grasped the reality of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, rather than by perfect obedience, they were overcome by the mercy of God and delighted to pour out their hearts in praise of their Creator and Savior. They gathered at the river and sang the songs of David, whom God had rescued numerous times. His words gave voice to the praise of their hearts.
The first question in the Westminster Catechism is “what is the chief end of man?” The answer is, “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Those French students of the mid-1500’s were glorifying God and enjoying him as they sang. They continue to do so, now gathered around the Throne of God, seeing their Savior and their God face to face. They and all the saints know the Lord ever more fully and praise him ever more joyfully.
It is very common to use the acronym “ACTS” when talking about the four major types of prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Ideally, if one prays with any regularity, all four of these types of prayer are used in each time of prayer. As we saw in the Lord’s Prayer, the ideal way to pray is to begin with God. When one begins with God, one can see the world not simply from the perspective of our concerns, but from the knowledge of our God’s power, justice, and love. Remembering who God is helps us to form our prayers and to pray with confidence.
Adoration is the form of prayer in which we praise God for who he is. We remember and rejoice in those qualities. Question Four of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is “What is God?” The reply is, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” Let me say that again: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” When we adore God, we are marveling over those qualities of God and praising him for those qualities. Our security and hope lie in the reality that God is who he is.
While adoration may be the best way to begin a session of prayer, it is not the easiest. Pondering God’s attributes is difficult. For one thing, as you do, it is easy to slide into thanksgiving, not only praising God for his goodness, but offering him thanks for the ways in which he has been good to you. Thanksgiving is indeed a needed and important part of prayer – but it is not the same as adoration, in which we thank God for who he is, and not for what he has done.
In addition, wisdom, power, and holiness are large and abstract topics, hard to wrap one’s mind around. I think this is one of the things that lays behind the Eastern Orthodox churches use of icons in worship. The stylized and symbolic paintings used in icons help the worshiper to focus the particular quality in God that they wish to ponder and praise. The same might be said, I think, of the statues and other art that can be found in Roman Catholic churches and shrines. We Protestants do not use such things because they are perilously close to idolatry. The closest we come is stained glass windows – but these almost always contain scenes from the Bible. I can remember one from the church my father grew up in that was a depiction of the good shepherd carrying home the lost lamb, which spoke of God’s depth of compassion and his love even for the lost.
It is indeed hard to focus on abstraction concepts, such as God’s infinity. In some ways, simply to take that answer from the Westminster Catechism and ponder the words slowly can create in us a sense of awe and humility. In my own experience, and perhaps in yours, however, one of the best ways to adore God is to read the Psalms. My own daily prayers begin with a few verses from one of the Psalms, focusing on one of God’s attributes. At times I use Ps. 95, 1-3:
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is a great God,
the great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:1-3)
There are other passages in Scripture which can help us to praise and adore the Lord. Isaiah 6:3 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” Rev. 15:3-4 says:
“And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
‘Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.’”
There are many other passages I could cite that focus on the greatness of God and the perfection of his character and being. One of the things that I enjoyed about Anglican worship was that in Morning or Evening Prayer, we always sang several of a collection of Scripture passages or early Church hymns. Songs such as these were intended to help the worshiper focus on the being and character of the Lord. Some people systematically read through the Psalms as part of their personal worship, to help them adore God.
One of the ways we adore the Lord is in hymns. St Augustine is credited with saying, “He who sings prays twice.” Our worship services begin with a call to worship, usually from the Psalms, followed by a hymn of praise. This is adoration. We use these things to focus on God himself, so that our hearts may be lifted up to the King of Heaven.
Some people use not only the Psalms but also hymns in their personal worship – perhaps simply reading them, or, if conditions are favorable, singing them. Adoring God can be difficult because we are thinking on things that are far above us – but we are blessed to have resources given by direct revelation from God and also through his providence as he has blessed other Christians down through the years.

II. Confession
Adoration is a difficult form of prayer – and if you are following the pattern of ACTS, the second form is even more difficult: Confession. We are generally willing to admit that we are sinners, but it is very hard to admit to particular sins we have committed. We can know intellectually that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” but there is something in us that recoils at the thought that we really are that bad. Part of our sinful nature is that we want to believe that there is something in us that commends us to God, something he finds attractive or loveable. The reality is, of course, that God loves us because he is love. He created us out of love and he redeems us out of love, because it is his nature to love with a pure and holy love. Even if we think of some quality in ourselves that he might find attractive, the reality is, he put it there himself and we can claim no credit for it. And even our best qualities are tainted by sin. For that reason, if we seek to commend ourselves to God based on something within us, we are doomed. Even our best is unstable; what seems good in us to ourselves may prove to be fragile when put to the test at some later time. C. S. Lewis once said, “No one knows how bad he is until he tries very hard to be good.”
We do not like to be reminded of our sinfulness. It is painful to know that there is no good thing within us, and that even our best is warped by the sinful bent of our hearts. I remember a quote from Calvin that I learned when I took an Evangelism Explosion course many years ago, that goes something like this: “We know only a tiny fraction of our sins, for if we saw our sins fully, we would be crushed.” When Isaiah was lifted up to the throne room of heaven in the year that King Uzziah died, his response was “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Isaiah was an educated man of noble birth, with high standards and a good reputation in Israel. He was one of the best there was. When he saw the glory of God, however, he knew the depth of his sin.
That is one reason that it is good to begin our prayers with adoration. As we contemplate the holiness of God, we become aware of God’s goodness and holiness, and of our own shortcomings and our need for the Lord’s grace and mercy. One of my anchor verses in life is 1 John 1:9, which says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God does not want us to confess so that he can see us grovel before him. He wants us to confess so that we will depend upon his marvelous grace, and so that he can cleanse us through the blood of Jesus. Our life as Christians is a time of growing in the Lord, as his grace is applied to ever wider and ever deeper aspects of our hearts and minds, so that we become more and more like Jesus, bearing the Fruit of the Spirit.
I have mentioned before that I record both the blessings and challenges that I encounter each day as part of my personal worship. Over time, those notes on my challenges help me to see where I am struggling the most, and so point out an area of weakness and sin. I can then ask God to cleanse me in that area. It is a slow process, but as the old Gospel singer said, “I ain’t what I’m gonna to be, and I ain’t what I oughtta be, but thank God, I ain’t what I was.”
We need to confess because without confession, we do not grow. Sin is like a mushroom, for it grows in the dark while being fed impure things. With confession, sin loses its power over us. If we do not confess because we do not want to know what we are, sin lurks in the dark, ready to trip us up again and again. To confess sin is to bring it into the light, where God can both forgive it and get rid of it and the impurities that make it grow.
Confession consists in three aspects. First, there is the admission that one did the particular action – whether it be in deed, thought, or word. Then there is the reality that what was done was wrong. These two things are important, but perhaps the most difficult aspect is the third: saying, “It was my fault.” We are all too prone to be like the little kid who, went asked if he hit his sister replies, “Yes – but she hit me first!” It is all too easy to find a reason why what we did was unavoidable and that we should not bear the responsibility for it.
Our tendency to shift blame goes all the way back to Eden: “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”
“It wasn’t me – it was that woman YOU gave me.” “It wasn’t me – it was that wily serpent!” Adam and Eve admitted that they had violated God’s command, but tried to place the responsibility somewhere else. To be true confession, we must tell God that it was wrong, that we did the thing in question, and that we bear responsibility for that wrong deed, word, or thought.
Confession is painful, but it is needed. We really are sinners, even if we have been well brought up and do many good things. We need to experience forgiveness and to grow in character and grace. The blessing is that it is not our confession that earns forgiveness and cleansing. We can confess because we have already been forgiven. Christ has fully atoned for all our sins, past, present, and even future. There is nothing in our lives that we can find where the blood of Jesus has not gone before.
That means we can examine our hearts to discern where we have gone astray. Nothing that we can find there will be a surprise to God. There will not be anything that you find to which God would say, “If I had known that about you, I could not possibly accept you as my child. Go! And never bother me again.” God already knows the darkest things in us, and he has cast them into the depths of the sea.
It may be painful for us to see how deeply sin has corrupted us, but we still have that unbreakable promise in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession removes burdens and it brings light and life to our hearts. God offers us the grace of confession so that we may appreciate ever more fully and ever more joyfully the completeness of the redemption that has been accomplished in Christ.

III. Thanksgiving
If adoration and confession are difficult aspects of praying, then thanksgiving is one of the easiest aspects. If we pay attention to what is going on, knowing that God is at work, we will see many things for which to be thankful. Again, by keeping my daily record of blessings and challenges, I have a record of things for which I am thankful. And simply reviewing the day helps me see not simply one thing, but several. We can, of course, focus on the difficult and painful things in life, but if our focus is on the negative aspects of our experience in life, we will develop and negative and unthankful attitude. We can miss what is good and positive, and see God as an ogre who is seeking to make us miserable.
On the other hand, there is an old song, “Keep Your Sunny Side Up” that approaches life from the opposite side, focusing only on the positive. “If you have nine sons in a row, baseball teams make money, you know,” and many similar sentiments. Having a thankful heart does not mean forcing a positive attitude onto a difficult situation. To force a positive spin on things is also a false way of looking at life. While it is true that all things work together for good for those who know and trust the Lord Jesus, there are still parts of life that are painful.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, Paul says, “pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” We cannot pretend that everything is great when we are struggling with something hard and painful. What we can do, however, it to give thanks that even this painful event can be used for God’s glory and our benefit. That passage does not say “Give thanks for all circumstances,” It says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” We live in a broken world, and things do not work as they are supposed to work. From a human perspective, there is often injustice and unfairness, and often there is pain. But we can always give thanks for what we see now as good – and give thanks that what is painful in our lives or unjust in the world will be defeated by God’s mercy and power. He will use what is wrong to further his purposes – and one day, he will banish all that is wrong and recreate all that now is, transforming a broken world into a whole one.
“Count your blessings; name them one by one, count your blessings, and see what God has done.” Life is difficult, but it does not have to be depressing; God is for us, and if he had done nothing but redeem us from our sins, that would be far more than we deserve. He has blessed us in abundance, far more then we deserve, or truly can desire.

IV. Supplication
Often what drives us to prayer is some pressing need in our own lives or in those of our loved ones. Supplication is the fourth aspect of prayer. For many people, it is the only type of prayer that is thought of. In a well-rounded prayer life, it is the fourth element of prayer, and the one that most properly should come last. When we begin with praise, confession, and thanksgiving, we will almost certainly come to our request with fresh insights into our needs and the needs of those we care about.
There are actually two kinds of supplication: If you are praying for others, you are praying intercessory prayers. If you pray for yourself, you are making petitions to God.
Our prayers of intercession and petition should cover needs of all sorts, both a wide array of physical needs, and also spiritual needs. We often major in physical needs. That is important; it recognizes that God is creator and Lord of all we see. But there are many things besides jobs, health, and guidance that we can pray for, such as a well-run government, honest leaders in government and business, reconciliation between those who are estranged from one another, and many others. The list of our needs is long!
One thing that I have noticed over the years is that prayer groups will often take the “soft” route of praying simply for health and work concerns. There is nothing at all wrong with praying for such things. Illness is part of the “death” that infests this fallen world, and God does want to relieve the suffering that comes from illness. The Lord wants us to pray for health and for jobs, and he wants to bless us with the joy of seeing healing come and of restoring someone to the workforce. But it is also important for people to bear one another’s burdens in other areas – struggles with temptation, relationships that need mending, planning for group or congregational life, and so on. There are many things for which we can intercede before the Lord, and our prayers of supplication can be long and varied.
James speaks about prayer in James 5:13-18 , “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”
God wants us to pray for our physical needs. He tells us that our prayers have great power as we lift those prayers to him in confidence that he will hear and act. James speaks of the power of Elijah in praying – an ordinary man, with faith in an extraordinary God. When he prayed for rain, he knew it would come – for God had told him to pray for rain. God invites us to pray for our needs, here for health, and for daily needs in the Lord’s Prayer. We are not told precisely how he will answer our prayers, but we are told that he will answer them according to our needs and for his glory
Prayer is spending time in fellowship with God, enjoying his love and mercy, opening our hearts to him, and seeking to understand his heart, so that we can love what he loves and so be restored to his image. In prayer, we adore God for who he is, we admit where we have failed to live up to his purposes for us, we give thanks for the multitude of his blessings, and we ask for ourselves and others those things that we need for life in this world and the next. In one way, it is the simplest thing in the world – and in another, it is the hardest. God is so great and we are so small and weak that the gap can seem unbridgeable. We certainly cannot build a bridge from our end – but God has, in Jesus, and he invites us to come to him, to enjoy him and to glorify him forever.