The earliest biblical prayers stem from a conversational intimacy with Yahweh and include spontaneous and unfiltered requests. Over time, prayer evolved into more fixed and liturgical forms. The teachings about and examples of prayer in the New Testament stem from these Jewish roots, yet they contain innovations introduced by Jesus and the early Christian community. The most notable developments are prayer in the name of Jesus and the introduction of spiritual warfare as a part of a developing Pauline theology. The kinds of prayer and the purpose of prayer are taken into consideration as a whole.

Biblical prayer is presented with a recognition of the distance between the Creator and the creature, of human sin and of God’s grace. The basis of a person’s approach to God in prayer is never simply “one’s search for God” but God’s gracious initiative, the establishing of the covenant, and the promise of help and deliverance on the basis of that covenant. It is this covenant relationship that gives the warrant for prayer. As a result, in patriarchal times prayer was connected with sacrifice and obedience.