Prayer Part X: Practical Helps to Pray

Intro

1. Prayer Models

a) A-C-T-S

Adoration: Give God praise and honor for who he is as Lord over all.

Confession: Honestly deal with the sin in your prayer life.

Thanksgiving: Verbalize what you’re grateful for in your life and in the world around you.

Supplication: Pray for the needs of others and yourself.

b) Scripture

c) Prayer walks

d) Pray over your calendar

e) Partner with someone

f) Written prayers

g) Spontaneous prayers

h) Prayer cards

Select an index card for something you want to pray for.

Write the subject you wish to pray about on one side.

Write short phrases of what you want to pray for on the other side (or same side, if you prefer).

Write out a Scripture verse on the card that is appropriate for the prayer.

Flip through the cards and pray.

i) Concentric circles John Piper

Consider praying in concentric circles from your own soul outward to the whole world. This is my regular practice. I pray for my own soul first. Not because I am more deserving than others, but because if God doesn’t awaken and strengthen and humble and fill my own soul, then I can’t pray for anybody else’s. So I plead with the Lord every morning for my own soul’s perseverance and purification and power.

Then I go to the next concentric circle, my family, and I pray for each of them by name: Noel, Karsten/Shelly/Millie, Benjamin, Abraham, Barnabas, Talitha and some of my extended family.

Then I go to the next concentric circle, the staff and elders of Bethlehem. I name them all by name.

Then I pray for you, Bethlehem Baptist Church. And then I go out from there to different concerns and groups at different times: our missionaries, our denomination and its schools, the Baptist General Conference, Evangelicalism in general and the church around the world, especially the suffering church. The wider circles include the city and the state and the nation and the cultural and social issues of the world.

You can’t pray for everything every time. So there need to be differences. And your heart will dictate much of your burden. Some days one family member or one staff member or one crisis in the church or the world will consume most of your time. But if you have a pattern—like the concentric circles—you won’t spin your wheels wondering where to start.

k) P R A Y

P = Praise

Start by praising God: telling him who he is to you and what you are thankful for. This will get your heart in the right place as you begin connecting with God in prayer.

R = Repent

Next, move into a short time of repentance: admitting to God your faults and allowing him to convict you of the things that are wrong in your life. This is the natural response of a sinner in the presence of a sinless God ().

A = Ask

Prayer requests are what most people think of when they envision prayer, and that’s the third step in this method. teaches us that we should confidently present our requests to God.

Y = Yield

The final step is to spend some time yielding to God: stopping and quieting your heart to hear from God. This is probably the most difficult step in prayer, but it’s worth the effort to make it a habit.

At the end of the day, prayer is about submitting to God. You’re admitting that he is sovereign in your life. In prayer, we tell God that he is God and we are not.

2. Prayer lists

a) Daily and Weekly Prayer Page

b) Prayer Journal

c) Prayer Apps