Try This to Add Some Texture to Your Prayer Life
Many people faithfully pray every day for those closest to them. I love bringing before the Lord each of my family members plus a handful of close friends. However, this often becomes a jumble of requests as I move among various people and their differing and ever-changing needs: someone’s health concern, a friend’s tough financial circumstance, a third person’s relational challenge, someone else’s job-related problem. With about 15 people with so many needs to pray about, my prayer time often turns into an ADD nightmare.
About a year ago, it occurred to me that my prayers for others would probably be more effective and certainly more enjoyable with a bit of organization. So I started clustering my prayers into four categories and focusing on just one category each day for those 15 people.
I start with myself and then progress to my wife Annette, and then each individual in my son’s family, then each individual in my daughter’s family, then my 96-year-old mother-in-law. Then I move on to five dear friends and finish by praying for the direction of our country and for guidance and effectiveness in my ministry activities.
This is what it looks like:
Day 1 – For God to speak to each individual (including me) and that we would listen and respond. If I know someone is going through a particularly tough period, I will add a request that the Lord would provide a specifically tailored bit of encouragement to them, even that very day.
Day 2 – For what I perceive to be that person’s greatest spiritual or personal need. It may be a particular struggle they’ve mentioned or it might be my own thought about a possible growth area.
Day 3 – For relationships: both my relationships with each of them individually and the important relationships within their family units.
Day 4 – For their tangible needs like health issues, financial circumstances, job-related problems, etc. These are more “nuts-and-bolts”-type prayers and are different from those from Day 2, which focus on more personal needs. On Day 4, I include prayers for protection of the grandkids from the many dangers our culture exposes them to.
I follow this practice first thing in the morning. If I wake up early and don’t have to jump out of bed, I’ll take my time and pray in some detail. Other days If I’m rushed, I walk through the list rather quickly.
Beyond these 15 or so people, from time to time, I commit to praying daily for a month for someone going through an unusually tough season. Making them a permanent “add” would eventually bloat my prayer activity to an unreasonable level, so the 30-day commitment allows me to bring someone before God for a period while keeping things manageable.
Of course, none of this means that I don’t pray for other requests throughout the day. I love being able to remember needs mentioned at Bible Study, lunch meetings or friends’ texts.
I wanted to describe this very rewarding prayer approach that I stumbled on and suggest that you consider adopting it. A word of caution, though. What makes this an enjoyable process is a personal commitment to not make this a legalistic “must do.” On those days when I’m particularly rushed, I quickly move through the topic of the day and then move guilt-free into my day. Discipline is good. A guilt-inducing attitude is not.