The Five Parts of Prayer

Pray without ceasing.  (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
 
George Mueller was a Saint of yesteryear who raised money to underwrite the orphanage that he was supporting. The amazing thing was that he did it all through prayer. He didn't send out brochures. He wasn't constantly holding meetings to raise money. He just prayed and God met the need to underwrite the children in that orphanage. Mueller did his entire ministry based on prayer, not on Public Relations (PR). It is important for us to listen to men like that. 
 
This is what he wrote: 
 
“I saw the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warmed, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditation on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words for the Lord’s blessing upon his precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were, into every verse to get a blessing out of it, not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated on, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably thus, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.”
 
God wants us to be in the flow of His Spirit, just like George Mueller. Therefore, you need to know the parts of prayer. The parts of prayer include the following: 1). Praise -- Thanking God, literally praising Him for who He is. 2). Thanksgiving -- Thanking Him for what He has done. 3). Confession -- Confessing our sins. The Spirit of God will reveal them to you. 4). Intercession -- Interceding for other people; and 5). Petition – Praying for yourself. 
 
I don't think God is concerned with the order in which you pray. He just wants you to be in communion with Him. However, praise is a very good place to start. These five aspects of prayer are great things to include when you commune with God each day.