Introduction
Paul talked about prayer in his letter to the Colossians. He said, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." (4:2) Then he asked the people to pray for him and his fellow workers. He wanted God to give them additional opportunities to preach the Gospel.

To understand why Paul told the people to be persistent, to keep alert, to give thanks, and ask for specific things in prayer, we will do a topical study on "prayer".

Anytime you do not understand something about your Christian life, you can do a topical study on that subject. You may want to know how to live by faith. Maybe you need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Do you know who you are in Christ? How can you live a holy life? Whatever the topic is, a study of it will help you to understand a little more of God's plan for you.

The Benefits of Topical Study
Some personal benefits to be achieved by topical Bible study are to:

• Find Answers to Specific Questions
  As already suggested, one benefit of topical study is to be able to find answers to specific questions we may have about how to live a Christian life. Whether you want assurance of your salvation, or need victory over a fear or besetting sin, or you want to know God's will for you, a topical Bible study will help you find those answers.

  This is where a Concordance will be especially useful, as you can look up all the Scriptures that use the specific term or related terms you want to study [e.g., prayer, petition, requests]. Search the Bible for passages that teach about the things you want to know.
  
  

• Bring Balance to Teachings on Main Topics
  Another benefit of topical study is that it helps you to balance the teachings on each of the main topics of God's Word. These main topics are the basic truths which God intends for us to live by. "He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it." (Tutus 1:9)

  As you study each truth from various viewpoints, compare one reference with another. Then you will be able to rightly interpret God's Word as He intends for you to do.

How to Study an Individual Topic
A topical study may take a short or long time to do, depending on the topic you are studying. Some topics, like the "Holy Spirit" or "salvation", occur often in the Bible. In fact, Bible scholars who write books on these topics sometimes spend years searching all the references to the topic.

The three main steps to topical Bible study are:

1. List All the Words for That Topic
   Using a good Thesaurus, write all the words you can think of or find for the particular topic you want to study. For example, for "the Bible", you might list "God's Word", "Scripture", and "Word of God". For "prayer", you might list "appeal", "petition", "supplication", "request(s)", "ask".
   
   
2. List All the Scripture References
   Using your Bible Concordance, list all the references you can find to the topic you wish to study. Then write both the Scripture reference and part of the Scripture.
   
   
3. Arrange the Topic into Groups and/or Sub-groups
   Next, arrange the references into groups of related material. For example, if you are studying the Holy Spirit, you may have lists or sub-lists for "Works of", "Baptism of", "Gifts of", etc. Write a title or heading for each list of references.
   
   
4. Summarize
   Read each Scripture in its context to be sure of the correct meaning, and then summarize the main points. Obviously, this may involve you placing some verses under more than one heading.

An Exercise on the Topic of Prayer
Prayer is an important topic in the Scriptures with the word "prayer" itself being used more than 500 times. I chose the following references for this exercise:

Genesis 20:17-18; 25:22-23; 1 Samuel 1:10-20; 2 Samuel 7:18-29; 1 Kings 18:36-38; 2 Chronicles 6:12-42; Nehemiah 1:5-11; Psalms 4:3; 63:1; 95:6; Proverbs 15:8; 28:9; Isaiah 1:15-20; 38:1-20; 56:7; 59:2; Jeremiah 14:11; 33:3; Daniel 9:3, 21-23; Jonah 2:7; Matthew 5:44-45; 6:1-14; 14:19, 23; 18:19-20; 19:13-15; 26:36-44; Mark 1:35; 6:46; 11:24-25; Luke 3:21-22; 5:16; 6:28; 9:28-36; 10:2; 11:1-13; 18:1, 7, 10-14; John 15:7; 17:1-26; Acts 1:14, 24; 4:29; 6:6; 8:15, 22; 9:40; 10:1, 2, 9, 31; 16:25; Romans 8:26-27; 10:1; 12:12; 15:31; 1 Corinthians 14:13-25; 2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 3:20; 6:18-20; Philippians 1:19; 4:6; Colossians 4:2-4; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; 4:4; 5:5; Hebrews 5:7; 10:22; 11:6; 13:18; James 1:5-8; 4:3; 5:13-17; 1 Peter 4:7; 1 John 3:20-22; 5:14-16; Jude 20; Revelation 5:8