Our lives have become broader than ever; we can literally touch people around the world. So much information can become heavy, even a burden, when we genuinely want to pray, but feel overwhelmed with praises to lift up and petitions to remember. We say, “I’ll pray for you,” and we really mean it, but the shear number of needs we know threatens to sabotage our best intentions.
Somewhere in all the needs, praises, concerns, and ever-present confessions, we must return to where Jesus’ pattern of prayer begins: worship of Who God is. We may leave out worship of the One Who hears our prayers, because we are in such a hurry to tackle the mountain of information. Kathy helped us understand Jesus’ index prayer here,when she shared 3 lessons on what we know as the “Lord’s Prayer.”
Here are four ideas to help manage your prayer times and make it fruitful:
Four Square Family Prayer ~ This breaks down concerns into 4 areas, beginning close to home and moving “outward.” Use it 4 days or for a whole week. The exercise of writing new info each week helps you to reflect on God’s power and answers. Write down needs, but also jot down answers and applicable promises from Scripture. Hole punch sheets to include in a Prayer Notebook.
One Month of Praying for People ~ This sheet is specifically designed to help you focus on all of the “others” in your life. Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6 uses all plural pronouns; isn’t that interesting? Use this tool in your Prayer Notebook to help you manage the bigger picture of the work of prayer.
Letter of Response to My Father ~ This letter writing tool helps us express ourselves in personal letter style to our Father in heaven. Great tool to use once a week, or use it every day for a week to sweeten your prayer life. The notes help to indicate the parts of Jesus’ pattern of prayer.
One Week of Responding ~ 7 Days of response sheets take you through a week, along with suggestions for what to focus on, space to journal, and an inset reminder of the elements Jesus included in the Matt 6 pattern. These 1/2 sheets are ideal for printing off and putting into a binder or carrying in your Bible.
I invite you to find a tool that looks like it may work for you. Like a menu on a fridge or a planner in your bag, these tools are meant to make your prayer life more fruitful and effective as you spend time communicating with your Lord.
We’d love to hear if you plan to try out one of these tools and let us know how it goes. Do you have another great tool you’d like to share?
Thank you to Tara, who designed these for our Women’s Ministry and for others who long to spend time with their Father.
stephanieshott says
Julie ~ Great practical ideas for making our prayer lives more intentional and focused. LOVE IT!
Teri Lynne Underwood says
This is great, Julie! I love it!
Tara McClenahan says
WOW! These tools are AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing!!!
Melissa | Madabella: made beautiful says
SO wonderful to find this post (and the several prior) on prayer…I’ve been talking about prayer all week and this just added to all that God is teaching me now.
Julie Sanders says
That’s music to our ears … even better, it’s answered prayer ;)
Julie Sanders http://www.comehaveapeace.blogspot.com
MainlineMom says
Great post, I love practical tools for stuff like this.
Julie Sanders says
I hope they’ll be a help to many. Having a plan/direction really helps to give me a sense of freedom when I sit down to spend time in prayer. Tying something new can freshen up my conversations with the Lord, too. Blessings to each who chooses a new way to spend time with the Lord!
Kristi Stephens says
These are SO GREAT – thank you so much for sharing these, Julie!
Julie Sanders says
You’re so welcome, and I hope they’ll be helpful.
Julie Sanders http://www.comehaveapeace.blogspot.com
Brittany says
Thank you for these resources. I just wanted to say that the links don’t load in Safari, but they do load in FireFox. So, mac users will just have to change browsers :). Hopefully this saves people some time!
Julie Sanders says
Thank you for letting us know. That IS helpful to be aware of.
Julie Sanders http://www.comehaveapeace.blogspot.com
Dana says
Thank you! These resources are helpful and I can’t wait to use them.
Julie Sanders says
I’m so glad. Our hope is to encourage you in your walk with the Lord. It’s on our prayer list! ;)
Julie Sanders http://www.comehaveapeace.blogspot.com