As I was reading Phenomenology of Prayer last week I came across the section where the author mentions a formula for the perfect prayer. His formula says that there should be five sections or points of your prayer: Praise, Thanksgiving, Confession, Petition, and Intercession. These being named as the fie points of how people should pray struck me slightly as being odd. This section seems to be written mostly toward a Christian way of praying, however the Bible gives Christians a formula for prayer that I don't think has all these five points.
"Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name,
Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Praise)
"Give us this day our daily Bread" (Petition)
"And forgive us our trespasses (or Debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us (or Our Debtors)" (Confession)
"Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" (Intercession)
"For Thine in the Kingdom, and Power, and Glory forever. Amen." (Praise)
We can see here that there is no direct thanksgiving in this prayer, known as the Lords Prayer, and the petition or the intercession sections could either one be changed to the opposite without me disagreeing because it is spoken in plural as to be covering the church as a whole not an individual. So it could be said that five steps are not necessary but perhaps three or four. However, we can see elsewhere in the bible that there is a time for thanksgiving in the bible, in the book of psalms, there is much thanksgiving which could also be taken as praise. However if thanksgiving is a step than the opposite must be true as well. There should be a part of prayer for mourning as well. Just as there is Petition for oneself and Intercession for others there should be prayer of Thanksgiving and prayer for mourning.
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