How to maintain a Prayer List

What?Link to this section

A prayer list helps to develop a deeper, more consistent and therefore more effective prayer life. This prayer tool will show you how to get started.

Why?Link to this section

“God in heaven will hear your prayers, and will answer them. He has never failed, if a man has been honest in his petitions and honest in his confessions. Let your faith beget patience. God is never in a hurry, said St. Augustine, because He has all eternity to work.” — E. M. Bounds

Bible ReferenceLink to this section

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” — Philippians 4:6

A quick introduction to Maintaining a Prayer ListLink to this section

A prayer list focuses your intention to pray without overwhelming you, allowing you to flow in and out of prayer throughout the day.

With a prayer list, when you step back and assess what you are praying for, you realise you’re covering quite a lot in prayer.

The beauty of a prayer list is also that you get to celebrate the answers to prayer along the way, in both incremental and more dramatic ways you will become more aware of how much God is at work!

Do it: How to maintain a Prayer ListLink to this section

A simple technique is to write each day of the week on a page in a journal. Under each day, write 4 – 6 different items, people or places that you want to commit to praying for. These can be prayed through in a quiet time, or when you’re going about your day.

You also might like to use the 24 – 7 Prayer app, Inner Room, to create prayer lists for different days; and set reminders on the app to be reminded to pray.

A healthy prayer list is made up of some of the following things:

A workplace/​vocational sphere:

At least one day a week, pray for the place you work or the sphere of influence you have been positioned to contribute in. Ask God to move in that place and that your life would be a sweet fragrance of His presence there.

Miscellaneous tasks/​assignments:

Pray for a particular project you are working on,sales pitch you are giving, exam you are studying for, or ministry you are leading. As there may be numerous things you are working on or influencing, sometimes splitting these tasks up over the days of a week and praying for one each day is releasing.

A family member:

Pray for a different member of your family specifically each day.

A wider family member or close friend:

Pray for the different people you are committed to walking through life with. It could be a close friend, a niece or nephew, grandparent or god-child, or a young person in your church. Pick one person from this category of people each day.

Leaders:

The Bible exhorts us to pray for our leaders, no matter how much we like them or not! Why not pray for your church leaders one of the days of the week, your boss one day of the week, and your civic or political leaders another day of the week.

Non-Christian friends:

It is so important that we are actively praying for people who don’t know Jesus. Name at least one person who you live beside, work alongside or play football with, before Jesus each day, asking God for their salvation and that they might know His relentless pursuit of them. Commit your heart to being part of the secret history of their journey toward Jesus.

Cities/​Regions/​Nations:

Following the pattern of the Great Commission, it is a good idea to pray each day for a particular geographical area. Take a separate day to pray for each of the following:

• ‘Jerusalem’ – your village/​town/​city: pray for the peace of the city and particular issues within your area that require a movement of God.
• ‘Judea and Samaria’ – your county/​region/​province – particularly parts of it that are different in culture or ethnicity: pray for the gospel to take root in new places and for new opportunities to show the love of Jesus in your wider region.
• ‘The Nations’ — what particular nations is God putting on your heart. Pray for the people, churches and governments of these nations. Intercede for missionaries or church-partners in these nations.

Books on Maintaining a Prayer ListLink to this section

• The Soul of Prayer (P. T. Forsyth)
• Prayer: A Force That Causes Change; Time to Pray, Volume 5 (David Williamson)