Do words fail you when you pray? Are you ever not quite sure what to say? Do you ever get distracted? I can honestly answer yes to all three, and I think I’m not the only one.
Using a guide/resource when you pray doesn’t make you any less spiritual. Here are some tools that help me out a ton in my personal discipline of a regular prayer time.
1. Apostolic Prayers. https://ihopkcorg-a.akamaihd.net/platform/IHOP/355/331/Apostolic_Prayers.9_pages.pdf
This one’s definitely my go-to when praying for churches, praying for the lost, and especially praying for friends and partners. It’s a list of pretty much EVERY prayer in the New Testament.
Around here, we like to say, “There’s no confidence like biblical confidence,” and when it comes to intercession, you can’t afford not to pray with the confidence that you’re asking according to God’s will.
2. Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man. http://www.mikebickle.org.edgesuite.net/MikeBickleVOD/Books/Book_-_Prayers_to_Strengthen_Your_Inner_Man_-_Mike_Bickle.pdf
“I never pray for myself.” I laugh when anyone says this. Of course you need to pray for yourself! If the Son of God had to do it, what makes us think we can get by without it?
Don’t get turned off by the title, ladies. “Inner man” simply refers to your spirit. It’s perfectly applicable to all y’all as well.
3. Lectio Divina, literally, “Divine Reading,” is https://www.gotquestions.org/lectio-divina.html
Ever feel like you need to slow down? The value of the discipline of meditation has never been more vital than now in our microwavable-on-demand-hashtag-that-Snapchat-it generation. This tool’s time tested; for at least a millennium believers have been using this gem from the contemplative monastic tradition to pray-read through the Word for themselves.
4. Joshua Project. https://joshuaproject.net/countries/PK (Pakistan)
Before Jesus commanded his disciples to ask God to send laborers into the harvest, they had to SEE the harvest. This tool gives focus and specificity to my prayers, and it keeps me centered on the reality of how few have access to the Good News. I use this tool often to get statistics regarding the unreached. I linked the page on Pakistan, a particularly huge and highly unreached country very few Americans know much about.
5. Prayercast. https://youtu.be/TMEYi0qpXwo and
6. Prayershorts. https://youtu.be/iN1SSIo_2lU
I’m a pretty visual person and get distracted pretty easily, especially during prayer. That’s why watching videos from YouTube channels such as these two help my prayers. They allow me to put a face with the name and help me pray informed prayers.
7. Titles of Jesus in Revelation.
What a resource! Countless times I’ve started my devotions by meditating on this. The book of Revelation reveals Jesus in his glory like a diamond — many facets shine, each with a different and uniquely captivating shaft of light. I challenge you to take one month and spend five minutes a day speaking out and meditating on each one of these titles. It will increase your affection for the Son of Man as well as set you up to intercede for felt needs from a proper posture, the posture of looking from heaven to earth.
Anything I missed? Do you have a favorite tool? Please share with us in the comments!
[…] be like a natural conversation, but any conversation grows dull when it runs out of new material. Try praying some apostolic prayers; God has revealed his will clearly in scripture, and we would do well to intercede with the focus […]