What Is Your Prayer Type?


Over the past few months I’ve seen so many different Facebook quizzes users can take to determine personality, who loves you most, what Looney Tune character are you like, and on and on it goes. Oh yes they even have ‘Christian’ quizzes- what Bible character are you like- I think that is the only one I have seen, but there may be more. I haven’t seen one on What Is Your Prayer Type? So, I think I will help out Facebook users with this article to see what your prayer type is not according to Facebook.

Bargain with God prayers are those you pray when something major happens in your life. Sometimes it is prayed like this, “Oh, God help me”, or “Oh my God I need…”.  I once heard a man share that when he was in the military a disastrous, life-threatening incident was happening. He knew he was not going to survive so he said, “God if you get me out of here I will love you for the rest of my life.” God saved him from death in that situation but he forgot about God for many years. This man used God to get him out of the emergency but soon forgot his side of the bargain he made with God.

Did you ever drive up to a fast food screen, place your order, get to the window, pay, drive away only to find the order was not correct. When we pray in that vain I call these  “Fast Food prayers.”  I drive up, place my request, and pick up the answer at the window, then drive away. When I pray ‘fast food’ prayers I am not waiting on God. I’m just expecting to ‘say my piece’, get my ‘order’ filled and move on. I don’t spend time with God. I only expect to get and specifically get what I asked for. God desires our time not in a fast food sort of way.

The Shopping List prayers. I have my long list of wants and desires, but quite often I haven’t listened to God I just talk. I give God my list, oh I speak it out to him but it’s truly about me rather than about a relationship with God. If we had a relationship like this with friends we would probably refer to this as a ‘user’ relationship. I doubt the friendship or relationship would last for a long time. It is a shallow approach to praying to God who loves the people He created and desires a relationship with us.

So you ask- then how should we pray? In Luke 11 one of Jesus disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus said, when you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” The beginning of this prayer focuses attention on God not self. So the model Jesus left us with is to first come into prayer focused on God the Father. The next part, “Give us our daily bread.” Here now is where we can ask for our needs to be met. It comes after we have recognized God for whom He really is. Then Jesus says, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” In this forgiveness of our sins and those who have sinned (wronged) against us, we are righting our relationship with God and with others. Jesus sums up the prayer with a request, “And lead us not into temptation.” We acknowledge we need God’s help in resisting temptation.


The model prayer Jesus gave us is not bargaining, fast food, or a shopping list. It is a prayer that causes us to remember we need to spend time with God recognizing Him. David said in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Being still and knowing He is God causes our attitude in prayer to be in the proper perspective.

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