Prayer Resources - part 1

I firmly believe in the power of prayer. (I guess having a blog named "13 Prayers" would be kinda goofy otherwise.) And lately, my prayers have gotten...visual.

In fact, currently my intercessions  are gathered on a ring. Each prayer is a tag that I created during my initial prayer for that person.


 
Prayer is more than just a "Gimmee" session with God. Prayer is a 2-way communication system. We have prayer as a way to honor, glorify and praise God. As a time when we can thank Him for all the blessings He has given us. And, yes, as a time to make our requests known to Him.

I suppose I've been a student of prayer all my life. As I bring you along to explain how I got to the point where I art my prayers on tags, I thought today I would begin to detail some of my favorite resources.

1. Bible

You can't beat God's word as a resource of how best to communicate with Him. Visit an online Bible site like Christianity.com's online Bible search here and enter "Pray" in the search box for a list of verses in your favorite version.

Some of my favorite prayer verses:

Matt. 6:5-6  "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Teaching us that prayer is best done in private.)

Matt. 6:9-13 "This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Teaching us that true prayer contains many elements such as praise, confession, intercession for others and requests for ourselves.)


Matt. 14:23 " After he [Jesus] had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone." (Again, teaching us and demonstrating that Jesus prayed alone.)

Luke 6:28 "Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Teaching us that our prayers should not be reserved only for those we care about. This is a command to pray for our enemies.)
 

2. My Prayer Partner Notebook 

This is a product by Beck Tirabassi. I was fortunate to hear her speak on prayer back in the day. The first time I started writing down my prayers, this is what I used. It's a very easy system that uses dividers for different parts of your prayers and to also organize other notes from your spiritual journey. Over the years, I've tried different ways to keep my prayer time organized, and I keep coming back to this. Everything is tucked into a small 3-ring binder. I still have mine from 20+ years ago. For info on Becky Tirabassi go here. The notebook is available in her store or at Amazon here. There is a workbook that goes with it that could shake up your prayer life: Let Prayer Change Your Life here.

You see, writing prayers down does a couple of things for me:
--helps me stay focused while I pray. Sadly, my mind like to go hopping off on little bunny chasing adventures while I pray. I start out strong, but can somehow go from praying for Daughter to find a place to live to planning meals for the week with very little nudging. Seems that the day-to-day creeps in when I'm not looking.
--Helps me track prayers. How exciting to have a list of requests and answers! When did I start praying about this? When did God answer that? What a blessing it is to sit down with my notebook and reread requests and how God faithfully answered!!

I'll be sharing more about prayer resources over the next few weeks. But remember this: HOW you pray isn't as important as DO you pray. God wants to hear from us. Has He heard from you lately?