In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning
I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.
Psalm 5:3
I admit it. I had order in most of the external things of life. Cabinets. Files. Schedules. Closets. And although I realized there are not many things more effective than asking an omnipotent and compassionate God for help, it took me forty-five full years to figure out how to bring order to my prayer life.
Sure, my family would pray before eating dinner, but praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)? I admit there were times when my prayer life would be anything but consistent. When a concern or appreciative thought passed through my mind, I’d shoot up a “Please, Lord” or a “Thank you, Father”, a form of prayer I believe does have its place. But was I really “devoted to prayer”? (Acts 2:42, Acts 6:4, Romans 12:12) Sometimes, especially if my heart was burdened, I’d remember to pray before going to sleep, but most of the time, and especially as I have aged, my mind wandered trying to solve the problem I had just supposedly “turned over to God”. This was definitely not “keeping alert” in prayer (Colossians 4:2). Prayer during my daily Bible study time, more often than not, was forgotten. I was all about listening to what God had to say, and not enough about allowing God to hear what I needed to say. Too often it took a crisis to hit before I was on my knees behind closed doors.
And it’s not like I had not seen evidence of God’s powerful providence working in my life as a result of such prayers. On the contrary, His answers to my family’s prayers from time to time were so stunningly obvious, it was awe-inspiring and very, very faith building. I have witnessed first hand that with God all things are possible, "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." (Matthew 21:22). I don’t even want to think about what my “hit and miss” approach to prayer may have prevented me from accomplishing. God has been proving His trustworthiness and lovingkindness since day one, in each and every one of our lives. What a track record! Yet when I asked around, I found my problem with inconsistency in prayer was not universal, but a common problem. But common or not, I think you’d agree, none of us can afford to not bring order to one of the single most important aspects of life, our prayer life.
I’ve always wanted to be like Epaphras, “a bondslave of Jesus Christ…always laboring earnestly…in his prayers” (Colossians 4:12), and this year I have turned a corner with a tool that might work as well for you as it has for me. This tool has turned me from “hit and miss” to “laboring earnestly” in prayer, and helps me encompass all the facets of prayer: praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession, and requests every day.
I purchased a journal with a wonderful format of being divided into the 365 days of the year with spaces to write down five things per day for which I am grateful. A side benefit to this, by the way, is that I find myself looking in eager anticipation for “today’s five”, even during days when blessings seem hidden by a trial. Just as important, there is an additional page at the end of each month with about 30 blank lines. Every day I think about any new prayer requests or intercessions I need to add to my prayer list on these pages. So by the end of each month, I have about thirty prayer requests. I may go several days with no new requests, and then have several new requests in one day. Everyday when I pray I start with the prayers I had written January 1st, and thoughtfully pray again all my earnest requests.
Granted January 1st’s prayer is much more brief than December 31st’s, but that’s okay. And granted, this way to bring order to one’s prayer life is repetitious, but if meaningFUL repetition worked for the persistent widow in Luke 18, my meaningful repetition will also avail much--- as it already has!
I suggest using a pencil to write your requests, for you will find many of them will turn from a request to a “Thank you, for this answered prayer, Lord”. When you document your prayer life, the reasons to praise your Sustainer multiply, as you realize just how much He truly answers your prayers. Another good reason to write in pencil is that as you pray your requests, you may realize, “What I’ve been asking is not what is needed…what is REALLY needed is this instead…” thus writing in erasable ink or pencil will avail you the opportunity to reword and improve your requests.
Do I think I’ll have enough things to pray about to fill about 365 different requests by the end of the year? Most Definitely. Considering the state of the world and our country, and how many challenges are you and I and our friends and family are going to face this year, this prayer that grows to be no longer than around twenty-minutes by the end of the year, is very doable.
You could use a simple notebook for your prayer journal. I prefer a pretty bound one so I bought “The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude” just for the formatting and art.
The tool mentioned in this article is just one practical idea for making prayer a daily priority. You may come up with something else to reach the same goal that works better for you. One way or another, I would love to see what the church would look like if we all recommitted ourselves to being entirely devoted to prayer. Can you imagine? Prayer so changes things.
Cindy Dunagan
cindy@straightpathspress.com
Author of the Journaling Toward Moral Excellence series of journals for young writers, preteens, teenagers, and young adults.
www.straightpathspress.com.
Journaling Toward Moral Excellence
