This year one of my goals, really my biggest goal, was to spend more time in prayer. I am one who likes to shoot up a quick prayer for whatever is going on right now. If someone asks me to pray for them, I stop and do it…mostly because I know I wouldn’t remember to do it later. But I really want to have a time in my day where I know that I will connect deeper and with more meaning. I wanted to think this would happen at 8am everyday after everyone was out the door, but in 26 days that hasn’t happened very often. Some days I stop at the store after dropping Aaron off at school, some days I have to take Erica to school, some days I get sidetracked on my way upstairs, some days I feel the pull to finish a layout I was working on late the night before, some days…
I have come to the conclusion that I really need to get up a bit early to have this quiet time with God. And after the few days that I have made the time to talk with God, I’ve also come to the conclusion that I need to have a jumping off point for my prayers, otherwise they get sidetracked. I want to pray for more than protection and blessings for my husband and kids, but this somehow leads my brain on a path to “what we are having for dinner tonight”. I want to pray for specific things, things that I currently shoot up in small prayers, but that I really want to pray deeply for.
My solution, a prayer calendar
The calendar follows the ACTS formula for praying.
Adore the Lord, so I’ve listed 31 names of Jesus {in blue}. Some of these I took from a wonderful designer, Royanna at Divine Digitals. Then I added in some more that came to mind.
Confess your sins {in black}, so I’ve listed 31 sins that may or may not apply to your life, if they apply, confess them! If you have other sins, add them in. Confession is wonderful since God already knows you’ve commited the sins, lol! You get to walk away washed free from the guilt of it!
Thank the Lord, I’ve left this one blank since there are just too many things in our lives to be thankful for. If you can’t think of anything specific, you can always thank Him for the gift of Salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Supplications, these are our requests. Obviously you are going to have your own personal requests, heal Aunt Mary and let this job interview go well, etc. But these three items (your spouse {in red}, your kids {in green} and the people around you {in purple}) are things that you can get specific about.
The ideas for your spouse come directly from “The Power of a Praying Wife” by Stormie Omartian. I love this book…and not just because she starts the prayer list with “his wife”! Stormie gives us very specific things to pray about for our spouse and Bible verses to prayer over them. There is great power in praying the Word of God!
Similarly, the list of prayers for our children came from Bob Hostetler in his article “31 Ways to Pray for your Children”. He lists the fruit of the spirit and character traits we all want for our children with some verses to pray for them. More verses come to my mind as I look at the list, so I want to challenge myself to add more verses for each of these traits over the next few months.
The list of those around us was just a quick list of things that I want to be more intentional about praying for. Like my church leaders and staff, the environment and our stewardship of it, and all the hurting people around me. I want to see where God pushes me as I pray over these people. I included separate days for friends, neighbor and extended family. Again, I want these, for me, to be bigger prayers, deeper prayers, Word of God prayers.
If you’d like to join me in praying you can download the prayer calendar and feel free to share this post with friends if you’d like. Just think how cool it would be if dozens of us praised the name of Jesus on the first of every month and lifted up our children with a plea that they would have a deep love for the Word of God on the 6th,and asked for healing for the sick and peace for the dying on the 26th…
Until next time…
Reblogged this on The Chronicles of a Spiritual Seeker and commented:
Really love this idea!
Stacy, this is so incredible! I may well steal it to use personally. I like to pray through Paul’s prayers from the beginnings of many of his epistles as well, as those are qualities I want to develop myself, and want for others I care for as well.
I had meant to leave a comment last time when I read this post but I think my blog reading was interrupted by a little one. Anyway, thanks for sharing the prayer calendar! I love it! I have one for praying for hubby and kids, but not the rest of the stuff, so that would be great.