Wordpress Query with Prepare

query.php

<?php
/**
* SQL query using $wpdb->prepare to protect it from sql injection
*/
private function get_users_pending( $user_id ) {
	global $wpdb;
	$the_post_type = 'post';
	$status = 'pending';
 	return $wpdb->get_results( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT ID, post_title FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_type = %s AND post_status = %s AND post_author = %s ORDER BY post_modified DESC", $the_post_type, $status, $user_id ) );
}