My Continuing Journey in Prayer

As a pastor’s wife for over 39 years, one of the passions that has developed in my life is an appreciation for the great privilege of prayer.  I am so thankful that I do not have to go to someone here on earth to ask him or her to present my heart’s petitions to the Lord.  Someone once said that as children of God, just as our children do, we can enter right into the presence of our Lord, crawl up into His lap, and pour our hearts out to Him.  What an honor!  What a joy!

 However, as much as I appreciate that I can do that, I found myself having such a hard time spending quality time in prayer (and still do!).  Satan makes sure of that.  A little over 20 years ago, I attended a women’s retreat.  I don’t even remember the speaker’s name but the words of wisdom she shared with me has greatly impacted my prayer life!  She talked about “organizing” our prayer life with creating a prayer book and journaling.  I want to use this blog posting to talk about those things.  The picture below was my first prayer book.  A group of the gals at my church (Calvary Baptist, Mesquite, TX) got together and made covers for our books. 

This was in the days before digital cameras and the ease of putting pictures into documents. So we cut up pictures and glued to the papers, which is always an option for you if you do not have a computer. The lady at the retreat also suggested we trace handprints on our pages and then when we prayed for that person, we laid our hand on their handprint, which just made it even more personal.

 Jeff's page -- yes he made his hand look so handsome :-)

 Rachel also finished out her hand....she was about 9 years old here

I saw this quote a while back from Beth Moore, “Kids need their Mom to pray in secret WITH the door open!”  I thought that was so good!!  Moms/wives – your family needs to know you are a prayer warrior.  It will be an example they will always remember (and treasure!).  Just an added note:  They also need to see you reading and studying your Bible.  I also encourage you, if at all possible, to start your day off in prayer.  I know that is not easy and will require sacrifice of time and most probably sleep.  But how can we expect God to bless our day if we don’t start that day off with Him.  My prayer book has helped me in so many ways. 

1.      To focus and not chase rabbits or fall asleep!
2.      To remember so many requests that I would otherwise forget
3.      And to rejoice as time goes by where I see how God answered prayer after prayer

As the years went by and my computer expertise grew and also digital pictures became an option, I switched from that older handmade prayer book, to a binder and I printed off pages for each family member, friend, our church family, etc.

 This is the first page in my prayer book

 Jeff's page

 Rachel's page....I am sharing Rach's page and not the boys as I am confident she won't mind :-) (Rachel has her own prayer book as well)

  And then I got my IPad and so now, I created the Publisher document on my computer, save it as a PDF in my Dropbox and it is put on my IPad when I sync it.  So much easier and saves all the ink of printing those pages.

  So with my Bible app (You Version) and my prayer book all right on my IPad, it is very accessible to me and such a blessing during my quiet time.  As I was updating some of my pages the last couple of days, I decided to blog about the importance of a prayer book.  Perhaps you are not like me and have a great memory, but I just can’t remember all the things I want to pray about.  My prayer book is very meaningful and special to me.  It constitutes over 40 pages.  The first several pages are different thoughts on prayer, Scriptures on prayer, etc.  Then I walk through the “ACTS” method:  A:  Adoration/Praise ….. What better way to get your heart in tuned with Him as you begin your prayer time, but to praise our great and mighty God.  We sometimes think that praise and thanksgiving are the same, but they aren’t. Praise is ALL ABOUT GOD – WHO HE IS and Thanksgiving is THANKING HIM FOR ALL HE HAS GIVEN ME!

I have a page where I have Scriptures that teach us to praise the Lord and then another page where I have listed many of God’s attributes that I praise Him for.

I also have a page of choruses that I like to sing aloud in preparation for truly praising and praying.  Singing a chorus or two really adds to my prayer time.  I sure can’t carry a tune, but thankfully no one hears me but God and maybe the cat (smile).

The next section is “C” of ACTS of Prayer – Confession: Definitely the hardest section, at least for me.  I have a Scripture page concerning confessing our sins.  And I have listed many of my “known” sins on this page that I commit way too often!  It’s never any fun to have God’s spotlight search your heart and show you the areas of sin that is there…..but needful in order for me to confess and ask forgiveness.

The next section is the “T” of ACTS of Prayer – Thanksgiving.  My list is long on this page and much longer in my Gratefulness Journal (separate from my Prayer Book).  I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for.   Another great thought that I heard someone say, “What if I woke up today with only the things I thanked God for yesterday?”  Whew!  So many times, I would wake up with hardly nothing!  Please “focus” on thanksgiving when praying thru this section.  So often I will be thanking the Lord for my husband or one of my children and will start chasing rabbits as to a specific need in their life.  Try to stay with “thankfulness” and then later in your prayer time, you can focus on that need.  There are so many things that we just take for granted, so hopefully by listing many of those things, we will become more grateful for all that God gives us! 

  The last section and the “longest” section will be the “S” of Acts of Prayer – Supplication ….praying for others and myself.  Before using my prayer book, this of course was where the majority of my time was spent, praying for others or for personal needs in my life.  That made my prayer time very out of balance.  Always “asking” but never praising, confessing, or thanking God!  If you use your prayer book wisely, then hopefully you will find balance in your time in God’s presence.

  There are many pages after Supplication for each family member, extended family, for our church, our friends, our country, etc.  I took pictures on my Ipad of some of the pages that I thought might be of benefit to you, if you aren’t sure what to pray for specifically for your family.  I realize these pictures are a little blurry—sorry!  But hopefully it will give you some idea of things to pray for.

I like to pray "Scripture" over my family.....here I am using the armour of God, personalizing it and using it in praying for us.

Another great Scripture to pray over your family

And I just recently added this page of specific things in our lives.  Since the majority of them apply to Jeff and I, our kids, their spouses and the grandchildren, I created a page for that.

As I said earlier, I do have a page for each one as well, with pictures and on the flip side with specific needs for that person.  Again, Jeff's page on the IPad....

And Rachel's page.....

  I was given this guide for praying for children years ago when I attended Bible Study Fellowship.  I faithfully used it for my kids and now for my grandchildren:

In addition to my Prayer Book, I also like to journal.  I usually only do that once a week (instead of using the prayer book).  It’s just writing out my prayers and life happenings, like a letter, to the Lord.  It includes all the good, bad, ugly, sweet, happy and sad times in my life.  These journals (I have stacks of them from the time I started in 1990) are, of course, my private collection.  Although, I do hope that after I die, they may be of special meaning to Jeff, my kids and/or my grandchildren.

PRAYER is such a blessed privilege that no one can take from us.  Thank you, Lord, for wanting us to communicate with you….for loving us so much that you want to spend time daily with us!