I urge,
then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be
made for everyone.
Prayer
is so fantastic it takes four different words to describe what we describe in
English as simply prayer. The first word for prayer is entreaties. It
means requests—requesting out of a sense of need. Realizing our personal need,
we need to ask people to pray for us. We have a deep need to ask God to use us
because we know our own unworthiness. So there are entreaties.
The second word is prayer.
This has to do with our approach to God. You may say nothing, you may make no
request, you may offer no petition, you may actually even ask for nothing. You
simply come into the presence of God, worshipping Him and pouring out your soul
to Him.
I believe it is best if you pray out loud, but it is not necessary. It
is wonderful when we share in prayer what God is doing in our lives so that
others can pray for us. If you don’t pray out loud, people will not know how
to pray for you.
I think it’s wonderful when we pray the psalms back to God. I find
that it’s very effective to ask people simply to think on the psalms and pray
verses out of them to the Lord, learning how to pray with biblical language. The
psalms are full of expressions of every kind of human experience, and every kind
of prayer to God.
Pray
for God to show you your need and to hear your entreaties.