Prayer is the greatest privilege of believers because we get to communicate with the Creator of the Universe! No concern is too small to take before Him.

Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, all we can do is pray”?

Yeah, all we can do is ask…

The Creator of the Universe,

The Alpha & Omega,

The great I AM!

Sometimes the original statement comes across a little less than hopeful than it really is, doesn’t it?

Prayer is the greatest privilege of a believer. We get to communicate with the Creator of the Universe! No concern is too small to take before Him. Because we have relationship with God, we are able to petition Him in prayer. After Jesus prayed in Luke 11, the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, which is where the Lord’s Prayer was introduced.

In verse 9, “Jesus goes on to say this:
So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you”.

Let's focus on the “ask”. It’s very important, and powerful! We may look at “asking” God for something as one dimensional, but there are actually a few different ways to do the “ask”.

There are 5 unique ways to petition the Lord. Let’s consider what they are, so that we can use them when needed.

Petition - We can simply ask God for what we need. And we can do it repeatedly (but no “vain repetitions”, please! Matt. 6:7).

“Suppose one of you goes to a friend in the middle of the night and says, “Let me borrow three loaves of bread. A friend of mine has dropped in, and I don’t have a thing for him to eat.” And suppose your friend answers, “Don’t bother me! The door is bolted, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you something.” 8 He may not get up and give you the bread, just because you are his friend. But he will get up and give you as much as you need, simply because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.” Luke 11:5-8.

God doesn’t mind our persistence. By Jesus’ inclusion of this short story, He is disclosing that He is moved by it!

Fasting – We can fast from food. I know others fast in various ways, like refraining from TV or social media, but I prefer the traditional fast from food. Fasting is especially helpful when trying to break a yoke of bondage, like drug addiction for example. (Mark 9:25-29.)

“The gospel of Luke suggests that though perhaps physically weakened from from His fast, Jesus was spiritually much stronger for it, and, indeed, the fast helped give Him the moxie to renounce the devil.” (Luke 4:1-13) Lauren Winter, The Mudhouse Sabbath

Praying God’s Word – We can pray God’s Word with our petitions. This is not the same as claiming a scripture as a promise for your situation, but incorporating God’s Word to build hope and faith. For instance, I might pray, “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Psalm 145:18. As I pray this verse, I am encouraged to know that God is close to me when I call for Him.

I like praying God’s Word so much that I provided scripture headers in my “Prayer Closet Organizer” structured prayer journal, which is housed inside my new book, “Organizing Your Prayer Closet: A New and Life-Changing Way” (Abingdon Press).

Intercession- I may also ask others to pray for me. (James 5:14)

“Intercession is by nature, the exercise by which an individual positions himself between two parties – one with the need and the other with the answer – and seeks to bring to the two together.” Tom Eliff, A Passion for Prayer.

Do you have friends or family members that you can trust to pray with you? I hope you do.

Anointing with Oil – If I am sick, I may request to be anointed with oil. (James 5:14)

“…anointing him with oil—The usage which Christ committed to His apostles was afterwards continued with laying on of hands, as a token of the highest faculty of medicine in the Church…” Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary

I encourage you to try these various ways to petition God in your personal prayer life!