Organize Your Prayer Life
I have a terrible memory. I forget birthdays. I miss doctor’s appointments. I misplace my keys.
I know that I have a mind like a sieve, so I employ several things to encourage me to remember — calendars, alarms, apps all dispel the fog in my cloudy brain.
Organizing my life helps me to function more successfully every day.
I don’t know why this truth took so long to transfer to my prayer life. For years, people would tell me to pray for things, and I would forget their request within minutes.
Then, I started saying, “Let’s just pray for that right now” (because praying two weeks before my neighbor’s surgery is better than not praying at all.)
Have you been there?
I don’t want to be a mediocre pray-er. I want to be a world changer.
I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that prayer is my battlefield.
Every good soldier marches onto the field with a battle plan.
Over the years, I’ve waged war on my knees in different ways — because not every campaign is won with the same strategy.
Effective Prayer Strategies to Organize Your Life
- Limit the number of things that you pray for every day. I like to create a “top ten” list. If I don’t have time to pray for “everything and the kitchen sink,” I focus on my top ten.
- Choose a different “prayer focus” for each day of the week:
- Monday: The Sick and the Hurting
- Tuesday: Extended Family
- Wednesday: Community Needs, Government Officials, Military Families
- Thursday: Personal Goals and Ministry Dreams
- Friday: Friends
- Saturday: Marriages and Families in Crisis
- Sunday: The Church, Ministries, and Missionaries
- Use your calendar or smart phone alarms to remind you of date specific requests.
- Have everything in one place that is handy.
- Use a notebook with dividers and pages for each section.
- Use prayer cards that can tuck into your purse or book bag. I inserted my cards in a mini 4×6 photo album.
- Use an prayer app on your phone. I’ve been using the Pocket Prayer Pro app for several years now.
- Create a prayer wall in your kitchen or office using a dry erase board or bulletin board.
- Set an appointment with God.
- Wake up 15 minutes earlier to spend extra time in prayer.
- Pray in your car on the drive to work.
- Pray on your lunch hour.
- Go for a prayer walk when you get home.
- Pray the hours using the alarm feature on your phone.
- I love how Traci has purposed to pray for her husband each hour.
- In the Bible, prayers happened 3 times a day.
- Set aside time for extended prayer on your Sabbath.
- If you need inspiration, use a prayer guide:
- 30 Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God
- Sara’s monthly printables called 30 Days of Adoration
- 31 Days of Praying for Your Husband and 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Children at Revive our Hearts
- Kat’s tweets for her children and husband (Printable copies of her 31-day calendars are available here.)
- Sharon’s outline on how to pray for your husband from head to toe
- Jennifer’s 5 Powerful Prayers for My Husband.
- 40 Blessings to Pray over Your Marriage from Debbie at Crosswalk.com
- How to Pray for Someone Who is Stuck in Sin from Lies Young Women Believe
- 40 Days of Prayer for our Persecuted Family from Voice of the Martyrs
- A Prayer Guide for Rescue and Restoration for Human Trafficking Victims
- Pray for Unreached Nations
- A Prayer Calendar from The Joshua Project for Unreached Groups in the 10-40 Window
- How to Pray for Your Pastor from Leadership Resources
- Pray for Your Community from A to Z (Love this from Amelia!)
- Scripture Prayers for the Lost
- Pray using Scripture as your guide.
- Pray through a Psalm or a chapter in Proverbs.
- Pray the armor from Ephesians 6.
- Insert your name or the name of your loved one into one of the 4 prayers of Paul in the New Testament.
- Use Beth Moore’s book Praying God’s Word, a great resource of Scriptural prayers on 14 different strongholds
- Try praying as you read the Daily Light on the Daily Path, a collection of Scriptural readings for morning and evening organized thematically for each day of the year. You may purchase the book or read it free online. I love to “pray through” some of these Scriptures and insert myself into the passage as I prepare my heart to face the day.
- I loved how Kevin DeYoung explains how to pray using Scripture — rejoice, repent, request.
- Use a devotional that is focused on prayer for encouragement.
- The One-Year Book of Praying through the Bible (This pairs nicely with Tyndale’s One-Year Bible — also available for free online.)
- One Year of Praying the Promises of God
- Read a good book on prayer to continue growing and learning. My favorites include
- A Hunger for God by John Piper (also available online for free in PDF format)
- Praying the Lord’s Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough by Elmer Towns
- Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster
- The Power of a Praying Woman by Stormie Omartian (All her books on prayer are great!)
- The Circle Maker or Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson
- The Great House of God by Max Lucado
- Meet a friend for prayer or ask a friend to pray for you. I used to meet 2 friends for just 30 minutes before small group, and we’d pray in a car in a McDonald’s parking lot once a week.
- Pray out loud or write/type out your prayers in a journal.
- Fast. It’s a command, not a suggestion. (Here is a great place to start if you don’t know much about fasting.)
- Take the 31-day #PrayBig Challenge.
Start strong, my sisters. Arm yourself with the tools you need to engage in battle on your knees. Never give up.
To help you get started, I’m sharing a copy of My Pray Big Prayer Calendar with you. Sign up today as a member of the Wildfire Faith Community and grab a copy in our Faith Fuel Library. Print out your copy and start each morning inviting God to strengthen your step and breathe fresh wind into your weary spirit.
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Let’s Talk: How do you organize your prayer life? I’d love to hear your tips!
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Let’s Pray Big in Community:
My desire is to lift up holy hands and “Pray Big.” Want to join me? I’ve created a private “Pray Big” Facebook group for like-minded sisters to share their stories and surrender each one to our mountain-moving God in prayer. Let’s cry out to God together.
Wow ! Super post, Lyli! My artsy self tends to be all over the map organizing and forgetting and struggling through prayer. Been reading much on it and starting prayer walking again now that the weather is nice. It is my habit to pray in the car driving about. Will thank Mary for the inspiration leading you to post such a resource rich article.
JOY
Kathy
great ideas.
What a brilliant post, thanks for sharing! 🙂
This post was by far the most helpful one 3-D Lesson for Life. Thank you for sharing these practical strategies!!
Fantastic, Lyli! Have bookmarked, pinned and shared – will be coming back to this post often. Great resources. Thanks for sharing!
Such God stuff here, Lyli. The top ten idea- implimenting that one now.
Wow, Lyli. This is a true treasure trove of prompts and ideas. I find it hard to keep my prayer life organized in any meaningful way. It’s just a constant conversation.
Journaling works best for me when it comes to a focused conversation with God. I’m so grateful He doesn’t grow weary of my wrestlings, you know?
I hope this Sabbath has brought your soul refreshment, friend …
Wow this is quite a list! Some great tips here, thanks.
Yes I am all for praying for a person right then and there, even over the phone. It builds the others person up, plus the added bonus of not forgetting 😉
I’ll definitely have a look into a prayer app though. That would be handy.
#Sharinghisbeauty
P.S. I was pretty excited to read in your “about me” that you like The Princess Bride! *high-five*
I so appreciate this post, Lyli. I need to bookmark somewhere so I can come back to it and really truly organize my prayer life. Thanks so much for sharing. xoxo
This is an incredible resource, Lyli! I’m going to be sharing it in the Twittersphere! Thanks so much!
I’ve recently starting keeping lists in my journal organized by topic – specifically I’ve been investing time praying for people involved adoption processes. So with that, I keep details on the prayer list so I can follow up with these families as I’m praying. God’s been showing me how I can apply this to other areas of my prayer life too. You’ve shared so many fabulous resources.
Wow, SO many good resources here! Thanks for sharing. I need a better technique to keep track of prayers, as well as to record when and how I see them answered. A journal or planner would be a great way to organize prayers and look back on how God came through for them. Thanks for sharing this!
I loved this -> I want to be a world changer. There is not better strategy to provoke changes than with prayer. Great resources here, thanks for sharing. I’m part of that praying group in Facebook, thanks for having me. I’m visiting you from the Weekend Brew Link UP.
Blessings,
Tayrina from TGAWrites
These are great strategies, Lyli. I go through seasons where I am organized with my prayers, then other seasons when I’m not. These ideas will help me when I’m in a disorganized season!
Lyli, I truly love every idea, and you have many! I, too, feel prayer should be approached in every way, and, it is wise to ‘plan’ and organize our time, even prayer time, to be sure we do this oh-so-vital communication! Thanks for making it practical..
Great ideas and resources! Many people think I am naturally organized, but I really have to work at it. Now I see I need to do the same with my prayers and prayer time! Thanks! #TestimonyTuesday
I love all the resources in this post. I have used a prayer app before but am looking for a new one so I will check out Pocket Prayer Pro. I also love Mark Patterson’s book “The Circle Maker”. It was a profound read for me. So glad to be your neighbor at #TellHisStory.
I am so glad you shared these wonderful resources at The Weekend Brew.
Awesome post! Love the ideas and the resources! 🙂
This is a wealth of good ideas, Lyli! I keep a little prayer notebook: each day has a prayer for me that I’ve actually written out, one prayer for each role or hate that I wear. Then each day has a little list of people. I like your idea of the prayer cards when we’re on the go. My little notebook is a small moleskine, fits easily in my purse.
#TellHisStory
What a great toolbox to carry into our prayer closet – thanks for all the practical tips and advice, Lyli!
Thanks for such helpful information. I am visiting from the #raralinkup!
I just shared this on Facebook – I think it’s amazing. I love Beth Moore’s Praying God’s Word and I am going to check out the Pocket Prayer app!
Lili, what a great resource! Thanks for gathering all this info in one place. I’m going to try the “Pocket Prayer Pro.” Blessings!
What a wonderful resource, Lyli! Thanks for giving ideas to help disorganized and forgetful people like me. I’ll be sharing this with my women’s prayer group.
Update: the women I shared this post with were happy to have these suggestions. I’ve added a prayer schedule in my planner. Thanks again for the ideas.
I love the practical resources and ideas you posted here. I am a person who can make prayer too complicated and wordy, who can act like God only hears me if I pray with much effort. I’m trying to remember to keep my prayers more simple.
Wow what an awesome list of ideas! Thank you!
Wow! This post is jam packed with helps that I could really use in my prayer and devotional time. I’ve pinned it for quick reference.
I agree with Barbie, this is amazing. My prayer journal keeps me organized. I use the one from Becky Tirabassi, another great woman of prayer. She wrote, “Let Prayer Change Your Life.” Thanks for sharing, such a amazing post. I love your blog. Blessings Diana
Great post! I try to keep a prayer journal cause otherwise I will forget things or people that need prayer. I always seem to want to prayer over every request at once, but I’m starting to realize that I should set certain days aside to pray for certain things.
Lyli, I absolutely love this. So much.
I’m going to hunt up that facebook group and join.
I’m so in love with this whole concept.
I love your statement: “I want to be a world changer.” Amen. Me too.
Prayer is the definition of power.
Thank you for sharing this.
~ Blessings ~
WOW, what an incredible list, thanks so much – there are so many great resources here! First time visitor from Faith Filled Fridays linky
So glad you stopped by Christine! Blessings 🙂
Wow- so many brilliant suggestions! Prayer is something many of us struggle with and overcompicate… I think you have given us a plethora of ideas to keep our prayer lives fresh an effective. Thanks so much 🙂
Hi Lyli, thank you for this post. Truth is I don’t have a specific plan of how I organize my prayer time. I wake up in the morning and pray the Our Father, and at night before I go to sleep I’ll pray the Rosary. It keeps me peace through the Rosary. I love all the resources you put in this post. Like the other readers, it is indeed a super post. Much blessings to you!
What a great post, Lyli!
I love all of your ideas and suggestions for organizing our prayer life. You’ve offered so many practical ways to enhance and improve our praying!
Thanks for sharing such a helpful post. I came over on Faith Filled Friday, and I’mg glad to find your site.
I pinned your post here: https://www.pinterest.com/melredd/blog-link-parties-and-blog-link-ups/
Hope you have a blessed weekend~
Melanie
This is a really great resource. I can tell the time you put into pulling it together. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this post! I have been really working on my prayer life lately as I know how important it is, but just can’t always find the time to do it. I also feel like I have struggled to be organized. I totally forget to pray for things all the time… Thanks for all of these ideas. I’m excited to try some!
Inspiring and convicting as usual Lyli! Keep on shining
Wonderful resources! It was like you were reading my mind. Many thanks!!!
Lyli,
This is an amazing resource! I don’t know where to start!!!!!!
Thanks for posting these great prayer links…
I came across this post while searching for a way to make sense of the chaos in my prayer life. You provided many great suggestions and resources. The one thing I didn’t see was any mention of praying for the President or our country. Maybe it was there & I missed it! I am really convicted about my lack of praying for those in authority. I wonder how many things God desires to do but doesn’t because no saints were concerned enough to ask. Sobering!
I’ve been looking for a comprehensive list of prayer strategy help and I believe you have nailed it! Can’t wait to dive in to all of your suggestions. Thank you very much. Lisa