A New Prayer Journey

I have often been ashamed of how lacking my prayer life is.  I battle find the time and the desire to spend time in prayer and am often only praying in the midst of troubles.  I have promised others that they are in my prayers and have forgotten to pray for them.  I know that I am "unplugged" from a major source of power in my life and yet laziness causes me to stay disconnected.

Yesterday I sought inspiration for my blog as I had hoped to make an entry everyday this week.  I prayed and read the Bible for an hour and though I found many things I could write about, I lacked the words to express my thoughts.  I made a plea on Facebook for inspirational help and my dear friend Catherine sent me a link to her blog.  For those of you who don't know Catherine, she is on a fantastic weight-loss journey.  She recently posted a video speaking about why she has taken the challenge of this journey and her thankfulness for her accountability partner.  And I found myself inspired to find an accountability partner for my prayer life.  I called my husband and told him I wanted to start a prayer journal together.

One of my greatest struggles with prayer is knowing what to pray and when.  How do I make a meaningful prayer without it being to general?  How do I not become consumed with sorrow as I visit all of the needs of this world?  How do I reign in my thoughts so I am thoughtfully meditating on specific needs for specific individuals?  Finally last night, what I have been searching for appeared in my head.  Together, Jonathan and I developed an organization so that we are rotating our prayer theme each night so we can stay focused and not forget the needs and hurts of our loved ones and others.

I thought I would share with you our design and invite you to join us on our prayer journey.  For each day we open in a prayer of praise to our God for a specific area, then pray for others in a related area and carry that theme to focus on a prayer for our children.  We then pray for each other regarding the same topic and end with a prayer of thanksgiving that coincides with that topic.  Here is what we laid out as a guideline for us to follow.  It may seem redundant to have a praise section and a thanksgiving section, but the praise section is intended to recognize God for Who He is and the thanksgiving section allows us to give thanks for the specific areas in our life where He has revealed that characteristic to us.

Sunday
Theme: Faith
Praise:  Open in prayer praising God for His faithfulness to us.  We love because He first loved us.  His faithfulness endures forever and He has been faithful to all of His promises.
Others:  Our prayer for others is for those lacking the faith, knowledge, and comforts of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We will name specific individuals that God has placed on our hearts to minister to.
Children:  Regarding our children, we will pray that they grow in knowledge and faith of God, naming specific areas that may need to be strengthened at that time.
Each Other:  We will pray that God would help us to follow Him faithfully, even when we don't understand what He is asking of us.
Thanksgiving:  We will thank God for our faith, for being able to freely share our faith and the opportunity to raise our children in the faith.

Monday
Theme: Finances
Praise:  We will praise God for being the provider of all our needs.  He is the provider of our life, our abilities that sustain us, and our purpose.
Others:  We will pray for the specific individuals in our life struggling to make ends meet, in search of jobs, or those who struggle to use their financial gifts wisely.  We will also pray for those in struggling countries, as well as our current country's economic state.
Children:  We will pray for our children's discipline, since finance is an area in our life that requires great discipline.  Along with that we will pray for our children's obedience since this is their role in the family.
Each Other:  We will pray for Jonathan's career as well as my job as a wife, mother and blogger.
Thanksgiving:  We will thank God for our financial situation and the opportunities that He allows us to be a blessing to others with the gifts He gives us.

Tuesday
Theme: Health
Praise:  We will praise God for being the Great Physician, the Healer of all our hurts.  We will recognize that one day we will join Him in Heaven where we will look forward to our glorified bodies and no more pain and suffering.
Others:  We will pray for those who are suffering with physical ailments.
Children:  We will pray that God will provide our children with good health.
Each Other:  We will pray for our own health and pray that God will encourage us in providing our children with a healthy environment, as well as meeting our own health goals in regards to eating right and exercise.
Thanksgiving:  We will thank God for our health, our children's health, and for those we have seen Him heal.

Wednesday
Theme: Relationships
Praise:  We will praise God for being our Father in Heaven, who rules and disciplines in perfect divine example.
Others:  We will pray for those struggling with relationship issues- those going through divorce or break- ups, those with strained parent/children relationships, etc.
Children:  We will pray for our children's confidence, that they find their self-worth in God and Who He designed them to be.  As they grow, we will pray for positive friendships and role-models and pray that God is designing a mate for them.
Each Other:  We will pray for our own marriage.  We our a powerful force of support together, which means there will be attacks by the enemy at our marriage.  We will pray for perseverance, renewed love, continued respect and that when servitude grows tiresome, God would renew our commitment.
Thanksgiving:  We will thank God for those around us who fill our life and our children's lives with love.  We will thank Him for His love.  We will thank Him for the love that we have found in each other.

Thursday
Theme:  Family
Praise:  We will praise God for being Our Father in Heaven, who rules and disciplines in perfect divine example.
Others:  We will focus our prayers on our extended family; for their health and well-being, for their happiness, for their faith, for their provision.
Children:  We will pray for their wisdom.  We will pray that we will be recipients of their love and devotion.  We will pray for their role in our family as gifts from God that we are to raise up in love for Him.
Each Other:  We will pray that He would strengthen our daily role as parents.  We will ask for His wisdom, patience, kindness, love, and guidance so that we can be examples to our children so they will know how to grow to love and serve Him.
Thanksgiving:  We will give thanks for our family and for being a part of the family of God.

Friday
Theme:  Protection
Praise:  We will praise God for being the Great Shepherd, who lays down His life for His sheep, who tends to us and watches over us and guides us to safe pastures.
Others:  We will pray for those in dangerous situations, war and areas of public service that require a sacrifice of self.  We will pray for those who are struggling emotionally as well; those that are depressed, lonely, or struggling with sin.
Children:  We will pray for their protection from temptation, danger, and evil.
Each Other:  We will pray for protection from temptation, danger, and evil.
Thanksgiving:  We will thank God for our friends and for the many support systems He provides us with.

Saturday
Theme:  Witnessing
Praise:  We will praise God for His great evidences of His love.
Others:  We will pray for Pastor and our church, Heart of the Shepherd, that God might inspire the worship service the following day so that many will come and hear of the goodness of Our God.
Children:  We will pray that God will provide them with the fruits of the spirit and that they would exude Godly qualities.
Each Other:  We pray that God will strengthen our witness of His great love; that we would be open to sharing it and that He would provide us with opportunity and courage to share His love.
Thanksgiving:  We will thank God for the comforts worship brings, for being tools in sharing His Word, and being designed for a specific purpose in carrying out His Word.

Join us in our prayer journey!  Please feel free to email me with your prayer requests or post them at the end of this blog.  My email is bloggingtobless@hotshepherd.org.