Today's Tidbit of Helpful Information: Practical Prayer Strategies

Practical Prayer Strategies

by Jill Marbach

1. Keep a journal for prayer, reflection on what God has been teaching you, etc.  Be creative and make it meaningful.

2. Find a place where you can have your quiet time alone so that you can talk out loud.  This may help you keep your mind from wandering.

3. If you are tired, do not lay down and try to pray.  Try kneeling or pacing.

4. When people ask you to pray for them, pray for them at that time.  Then get a piece of paper an write down the person, the request, and the date.  You can write it later in your journal.  Ask the person a few days later about it.

5. Keep a list of "treasures" at the back of your Bible.  Think of a few key times when God has answered your prayers in a supernatural or simple way.  Write these down and then when you are lacking faith in a prayer, you can refer to this list and remember God's faithfulness.

6. Write down the day you pray for something, what the request is, claim a passage of scripture with it, and then continue praying for it until you see God answer.

7. Try to think how you personally can incorporate prayer throughout your day.  For example, pray as you are walking to class, while you are waiting in line for lunch or at the bookstore, etc.  Talk to God about how your day is going, thank Him for what He is doing in and through you that day, etc.

8. Use world prayer cards.  Operation World, world maps, etc. to help you pray for the world.

9. Read through a Psalm a day and then reread it and pray it back to God by replacing all the "He" and "God" words with "You".

10. Put up "prayer points" or motivational verses or quote next to your mirror or in your car or on your refrigerator.

11. Do personal studies on prayer so that you will build Biblical convictions on it.  Look up verses on prayer and meditate and memorize them.  Study famous prayers in the Bible.  Study Jesus' prayer life - when and how did He pray?

12. Pray that God would make you into a man or woman of prayer.

I am in commando declutter mode around here. I have been clipping and saving little bits of helpful information throughout my married life....and that's it. Just saving them. Sometimes they are in my nightstand drawer, a folder, the junk drawer, the cookbook, etc. I know a great idea is to store them in a household binder but I am not even remotely interested in adding ANYTHING else to this house right now. So in an effort to rid my house of these little bits and bobs of paper, I'm going to post them here, like a cork board...my own Pinterest, if you will.