7 Types of Prayer in the Bible (with Examples of Each)
⏱ 13 min read
Most Christians, when asked to pray, default to one type. Usually supplication — asking God for things. Sometimes thanksgiving, on a good day. Occasionally confession, when the conscience presses.
There is nothing wrong with any of those. They are real prayer. The problem is that the 7 types of prayer in the Bible are wider than the one or two we tend to live in, and the soul that eats from only a corner of the table is eating a thin diet. The Psalter is the prayer book of scripture, and it covers ground far beyond “please give me” and “thank you for.” It praises. It confesses. It thanks. It asks. It intercedes. It laments — at length, with no rush to resolution. And, in its quieter passages, it contemplates — sits, waits, makes no request at all.
This article walks all seven. Each gets a definition, a scripture example, and a short version you can actually pray today. None of them are advanced. All of them are what scripture is doing on nearly every page.
A note before we begin. There is a stream of contemporary practice that treats prayer as essentially spontaneous — just talk to God, however it comes out. That stream is right that prayer should not be performance, and that the heart is what matters more than the form. It is also incomplete. Scripture itself gives prayer forms — the Psalms are forms, the Lord’s Prayer is a form, the apostolic blessings are forms. A form is not the opposite of a heart prayer. A form is the chair the heart prayer sits down on. The seven types below are seven chairs. Pure-spontaneity prayer often runs out of seats because it does not know that other rooms exist.
Here, then, are the 7 types of prayer in the Bible, walked one by one.
1. Praise
What it is. Prayer that names who God is. Not what He has done for you (that’s thanksgiving — different). Not what you want Him to do (supplication). Just who He is, said back to Him.
Scripture example. Psalm 145 — the whole psalm. “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
How to pray it. Name three of God’s attributes back to Him. Out loud, or in writing, slowly. “Lord, You are holy. You are good. You are unchanging.” That’s a whole prayer. The praising changes the one praising. The soul that has just named God’s character is in a different posture than the soul that began the day complaining about traffic.
Try this short praise:
Father, You are holy. There is no shadow in You. You are good — all the time, even when I cannot see it. You are faithful — Your promises hold while the world shifts under my feet. You are God. I praise You.
That is praise. It asks for nothing. It thanks for nothing specific. It names. Praise is the type of prayer that most adult Christians have done least of since childhood, and it is the type that most quickly re-orients the day.
2. Confession
What it is. Prayer that names a specific thing you have done wrong, owns it without softening it, and asks God for forgiveness.
Scripture example. Psalm 51 — David’s confession after his sin with Bathsheba. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”
Notice the specificity. David does not pray “forgive me my sins.” He prays “I know my transgressions.” He has named them to himself before he names them to God.
How to pray it. Name the thing. Specifically. The conversation you handled poorly. The thought you indulged. The duty you avoided. Then:
Father, I did this. (Name it.) It was wrong. I am sorry. Forgive me. Cleanse me. Change me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Confession is a short prayer. It is meant to be. The long version of confession is wallowing, which is not what scripture asks for. Name, own, ask forgiveness, receive it, move on. The receiving is the part most Christians skip — 1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The forgiveness is already given. Receive it.
3. Thanksgiving
What it is. Prayer that thanks God for specific things He has done. Different from praise (which thanks Him for who He is). Thanksgiving is for what He has done — yesterday, last year, in your specific life.
Scripture example. Psalm 100 — “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! … Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”
And throughout the Pauline letters — “I thank my God always when I remember you” (Philemon 4); “giving thanks always and for everything” (Ephesians 5:20).
How to pray it. Three specific things from the last twenty-four hours. Not general — “thanks for my family.” Specific — “thanks for the way my daughter laughed at dinner. Thanks for the email I’d been dreading that turned out fine. Thanks for the body that walked up the stairs this morning without pain.”
Short thanksgiving:
Father, thank You for (specific thing). Thank You for (specific thing). Thank You for (specific thing). I see Your hand in each one. Thank You.
The specificity is what trains the eye. The general “thanks for everything” doesn’t change the day. “Thanks for the way the light hit the kitchen at 7am” does. Thanksgiving is the type of prayer that, over weeks, makes you a different kind of person — one who notices.
4. Supplication
What it is. Prayer that asks God for something for yourself. Your needs. Your provision. Your wisdom. Your healing.
Scripture example. Philippians 4:6 — “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” And the entire book of Psalms is full of personal supplication — Psalm 86, “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you — you are my God.”
How to pray it. Ask. Specifically. Without the long preamble that most Christians use to soften the asking. “Father, I need wisdom for this decision. I need provision for this bill. I need healing for this body. I am asking. You said to ask.”
Short supplication:
Father, I bring You (the specific thing). I am asking. I do not know what answer is best — You do. I trust You with the answer. But I am bringing the ask in obedience to Your invitation to bring it.
Supplication is the most common type of prayer for a reason — life is full of need, and the Father invites the asking. The mistake is to think it is the only type. The mistake is also to feel guilty about asking. Scripture is full of saints who ask plainly. Ask, and it will be given to you. The asking itself is an act of faith.
5. Intercession
What it is. Prayer that asks God for something for someone else. Standing in the gap, scripture calls it. Bringing another person before God when they cannot or will not bring themselves.
Scripture example. Abraham interceding for Sodom in Genesis 18 — “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? … Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And Paul, throughout his letters — “Without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.” (Romans 1:9-10.)
How to pray it. By name. The mistake is to pray “bless my family.” The practice is to pray “bless Sarah today — give her courage for the conversation with her boss. Bless James — heal his back. Bless Mom — let her sleep tonight.”
Short intercession:
Father, I bring (name). I bring (name). I bring (name). I do not know fully what they need — You do. I stand in the gap for them today. Move in their lives. Where I cannot reach them, You can.
Intercession is the type of prayer most Christians underuse. It is also the one that, over time, changes how you see the people you carry. You cannot pray for someone consistently and remain unmoved toward them. The praying changes the heart of the one praying. (For a walk-through of intercession for the people closest to you, see how to pray for your children and the 12 verses turned into prayers for children and grandchildren.)
6. Lament
What it is. Prayer that brings grief, complaint, and unanswered questions to God. Without the requirement to resolve them by the end of the prayer.
This is the type modern Christians most often think isn’t real prayer. It is. About a third of the Psalms are laments — Psalm 13, Psalm 22, Psalm 42, Psalm 88 (which never resolves, by the way; it ends in darkness, and God put it in the Bible anyway). Lamentations is a whole book of it. Jesus laments at the tomb of Lazarus, and from the cross.
Scripture example. Psalm 13:1-2 — “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?”
How to pray it. Bring the thing. The grief. The unanswered prayer. The disappointment that you have been told not to name. Bring it in the words you would use to a person who could actually hear you. God can hear you.
Short lament:
Father, this is hard. (Name the hard thing.) I do not understand. I have been waiting. I am tired. I do not know how to keep going. I am bringing You the truth tonight, not the polished version. Hold me here.
Lament is the prayer that says scripture takes your grief seriously and so should you. The fact that you cannot resolve the grief in one prayer does not mean the prayer failed. Most lament is not meant to resolve. It is meant to be heard. The Father hears it. (When the grief is anxiety or overthinking specifically, praying through it with scripture is a small daily form of lament that quiets the noise.)
7. Contemplation
What it is. Prayer that asks for nothing, says little, and just sits with God. The prayer of waiting in His presence.
Scripture example. Psalm 46:10 — “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 62:1 — “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.” And the long tradition of the saints sitting in chapels for hours, not speaking, simply present.
How to pray it. Sit. Five minutes. Set a timer if you have to. Do not ask for anything. Do not speak in words after the opening line. Let your awareness rest in God’s presence, the way you’d sit in the same room as someone you love without needing to fill the silence.
Short contemplation:
Father, here I am. I am not asking for anything in this five minutes. I am just sitting with You. Let me know You are here.
Then sit. The mind will wander. When it does, name what God is — holy, good, here — and return. That returning is the prayer. Contemplation is the type of prayer most modern Christians never try, and the one that, over years, deepens the others. You cannot lament well without it. You cannot praise well without it. The silent prayer is the soil the spoken prayers grow in.
Habermann, writing the evening prayers that the church used for centuries to close the day in contemplation, captured the spirit of the seventh type:
“Dear Lord, as night is drawing near, fill Thou our hearts with light and cheer, let us securely rest in Thee… And while our eyes in slumber close, grant that our hearts may find repose; but let them be to Thee awake.”
— Habermann, Morning Evening Prayers
The heart awake to Him while the body rests is what contemplation cultivates. It is the kind of prayer that, in time, becomes the undercurrent of all the others.
How to know which of the 7 types of prayer to pray today
Across the 7 types of prayer in the Bible, the type you most need on a given day is often the one you have done least. Look at the day before you choose.
- Bad morning? Start with praise. It re-orients.
- Something on your conscience? Confession. Short. Then receive the forgiveness and move.
- Coasting? Thanksgiving, with three specifics.
- Real need? Supplication. Ask plainly.
- Someone on your heart? Intercession. By name.
- Grief? Lament. Take as long as you need.
- Restless? Contemplation. Sit five minutes.
- Frightened at bedtime? A short prayer drawn from the 10 scriptures to pray before bed folds praise, supplication, and lament into one practice.
The chart on the printable below maps the seven types to seasons of life so you can find the one that fits the day.
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A journal that walks all seven types across 140 days
Most Christians, left to their own pattern, will pray one or two types and let the other five quietly drop. A journal that intentionally cycles through all seven over a longer practice is the only way to keep the diet wide. Day by day, the prompt rotates — praise day, confession day, thanksgiving day, intercession day, and so on — so the soul gets the full range scripture itself prays.
That’s the Everspring Prayer Journal for Women. Built around the seven biblical types of prayer, walked across 140 days, with scripture pre-printed for each day and space for what is yours alone. Built for the woman who has been praying mostly one type for years and is ready for the wider diet scripture itself walks.
Frequently asked questions
Are seven really the only types of prayer in the Bible, or are there more?
There are more if you split them finely — vows, blessings, dedications, doxologies, prophetic prayer, and so on. The seven in this article are the seven most commonly recognised by both Reformed and contemplative traditions, and the seven that cover almost all the prayer scripture actually models. If you want to add an eighth, the most common addition is vow or commitment — the prayer in which you commit yourself to something before God. It tends to fold naturally into confession or supplication for daily use.
Do I have to pray all seven types every day to be praying biblically?
No. Most days, you’ll pray two or three. The point of knowing all seven is not to do them all daily — it is to know that they exist, so when the soul needs lament you do not try to do thanksgiving, and when the soul needs contemplation you do not try to do supplication. Match the type to the day. The journal does this for you by rotating the prompt.
How does the Lord’s Prayer fit into the seven types?
It contains nearly all of them in one short prayer. “Hallowed be Thy name” is praise. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” is supplication and consecration. “Give us this day our daily bread” is supplication. “Forgive us our debts” is confession. “As we forgive our debtors” contains intercession-of-the-heart. “Deliver us from evil” is supplication and lament-adjacent. “For Thine is the kingdom” returns to praise. The Lord’s Prayer is the master template — pray it slowly enough and all seven types are touched in under two minutes.
The Everspring Prayer Journal for Women walks all seven biblical types of prayer across 140 days with scripture pre-printed for each day. Built for the woman whose prayer life has lived on two or three types and is ready for the wider diet scripture itself prays.
