PRAYING
Adoration:
Recognising
God's Greatness Example
Confession:
Recognising our faults
Example
Thanksgiving:
Recognising our Blessings
Reflection
Supplication:
Recognising our
needs
Reflection
However, some churches prefer to put Adoration and Thanksgiving
together as Praise
and use the word Intercession instead of Supplication.
Most of my Christian friends would not want to worry about those details, but there is in fact a difference of theology as well as emphasis. Interceding implies almost a right (as a saved Christian) to put oneself between the person in need and God, whereas Supplication implies a rather more humble attitude, begging for God to act. The former group have a theology which says: Christ accomplished everything on the Cross and we should thereafter live the Resurrection Life, thus Confession is not emphasised; perhaps, dare I say, neglected! While the latter group continue to look to the Cross for Salvation every day. They can point to Jesus' words Take up your cross and follow me, while the former group can rely on The Apostle Paul (as they would prefer to call him rather than Saint Paul) who said In Christ you are new creation. Does it matter? yes it does because it keeps some Churches apart and perpetuates long standing rifts.
However, as Saint Paul would certainly say:
So why do we engage in adoration, thanksgiving and praise? Does God need it? Possibly, but certainly He wants it and it is good for us. If we never give thought to saying Thankyou, then we are in danger of missing what things He has done for us. Likewise adoration and praise remind us what God is like, lest we are tempted to try and manipulate Him (no chance!) to see things our way, foolish creatures that we are. And talking of temptation, how shall we learn to overcome it if we do not engage in confession, which means reviewing our behaviour, seeking His forgiveness for our faults and seeking His help to turn away from them. (That is called Repentance)
All this is a very simple look at prayer and many more learned and spiritually mature than I am have preached on the subject. All such people say that prayer consists not only of our speaking to God but also of listening to Him. Frankly that is both difficult and dangerous. Dangerous? yes, because we have fertile imaginations and it is all too easy to lead ourselves up the garden path. However, you might like to try: