Praying With A Prayer List

Most of the tips we have looked at so far stress more contemplative, meditative aspects to prayer.  This week I want to flip the coin and talk about using a prayer list.  It may be due to my disposition that I like discipline and structure, but I have always found prayer lists to be very helpful in my personal prayer life.  I find them helpful for two reasons.

First, it helps me remember all the people and things I am praying for at a given time.  For me, this includes my wife, my parents, kids, in-laws, and grandkids, all the people of our congregation (by name), our missionaries, our governing authorities (local, state, and national), other local congregations, people I am praying will come to Christ, and then other topics as they arise.  There are simply too many subjects on that list for me to keep them all in mind without a list.

Second, the list allows me to keep my prayer time fresh.  Other than myself and my wife, I do not pray for the same people every day, but rather rotate through.  This helps me to focus more during my prayer time as the list is ever-changing.

I have tried various ways of keeping a list, but in recent years I have really enjoyed an app called Prayer Mate that is available for your mobile device.  It allows me to create different lists to pray through, and then to create individual cards for each list.  I then determine how many items from each list I want to pray for each day, and the app rotates the cards in the list so I am praying my way through each list.  This is somewhat hard to describe, but it is really easy to use once it is set up!  I just click on the app and it gives me a fresh list to pray through, including my wife (always), other family members, the members of BRCC, a church ministry, a missionary, particular topics of concern, another local congregation or church leader, someone who needs to respond to the Gospel, and our government and nation.

I do not use the list every day, but I do use it several days a week and have found it very helpful.  It helps me remember who I am praying for, keeps the list fresh, lets me keep notes on specific prayer requests for each person, and is always as close as my iPhone.

If you have not had a prayer list in while, I encourage you to create one to help guide your prayers.  A tool such as Prayer Mate (or a manual list) is a valuable aid in fulfilling our call to prayer.  If you have any questions about Prayer Mate, I would be glad to talk with you more about how to use it in your own prayer life.

In Christ,

Bret