Sunday, September 27, 2015

My Aids in Prayer

In light of the recent War Room movie many of us are reexamining our lives especially in the area of prayer. How often are we praying and are we praying just when we are in trouble?

I think so often we tend to use prayer as a last line of defense instead of the first line of defense and as a hedge and the first line of offense.

For those of you who have not seen War Room, it is a movie that details how prayer and strategic planning. I have come across several tools for aiding in my prayer life and I thought I would share them with you.
  • First is the use of a prayer journal. My journal has significantly changed over the years. It's went from my constant complaining and whining to me actually praying and usually when I do start to whine the Lord tends to correct my thinking and cause me to repent before I'm even done writing. I also write down people that I am praying for, usually just their name and a quick note on specifically what I am praying.
  • Mark Batterson's Draw the Circle, a 40 day Prayer Challenge. It reads like a devotional with a prompt to pray each day, specifically. The point is to "draw a circle" around the people and things that are important to you. Batterson tells of how he led prayer on a corporate level with his church based on Scripture and I think it is something that we can definitely use in our personal prayer lives. The number 40 is significant because it is the number of years the Israelites spent in the wilderness and the number of days Jesus spent in the wilderness. 
  • Jennifer White's article 9 prayers for your War Room. I've actually prayed these prayers and written them down in my prayer folder. 
  • My prayer folder. I've read of people who have said they did not have the space to create an actual prayer room or prayer closet. And I totally understand! I have no extra closets or rooms in my house. We have a three bedroom home and readying to welcome our fourth child. So that should give you an idea of the amount of extra space we actually have. Every nook and cranny is needed. So I created a prayer folder. I use it to hold the prayers that I have written that I plan to post when I do have the space for a prayer closet.. And to contain my strategy for prayer on how I pray.
  • There are also several reading plans on the YouVersion bible app that can aid in helping you see the importance of prayer in the bible. I'm doing both War Room- The Overflow Devo and Prayers of Jesus reading plans. They are short reading plans (6 days & 5 days respectively). When I'm also doing other bible studies (whether working through them or writing them) I try to keep it light and not too long on the reading plans. 


So what are your aids in prayer? Share them below!
 

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