Prayer and Petition

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Phil 4:6

I've been plagued with prayer requests for myself, my friends and children growing up in rough situations. Our pastor has been talking about prayer. My friends have been asking for prayer, and although I do pray a lot to God sometimes I feel like I'm must not be doing it right. Sometimes answers come, but I'm not convicted my prayers had anything to do with it. I know they are important, but some people just seem to "know" that their prayers work.

I decided to start walking through my concordance in my bible and looking at prayer verses. This one stuck out to me the most. Turn your worries into prayer is the reference and the verse talks about prayer and petition. Why is petition called out seperatly? What makes it different than prayer? A petition to me is something you sign to change a law and try to get 1,000 signatures.

Maybe it's having a specific request that you want answered that you are requesting.

I know I have enough requests right now.... and as they say in the Catholic church "Lord hear our prayer".