4 August 2008

Prayer Organisation

by Emilie Barnes

Admit your faults to one another
and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
James 5:16

Some of you may not have a prayer life at all. Others of you may have a very vital prayer life. Some of you want to have a prayer life but are fumbling with it because you don’t know how to incorporate it into your life or how to organise it. I was once in that position. I was fumbling in my prayer life because I didn’t know the steps to take. That’s what we want to discuss now – some steps to take in order to set up a prayer notebook and to organise our prayer life.

God is always with us. When the times are the lowest, that’s when He picks us up and carries us. Isn’t that wonderful? Some of us have experienced that. Some of us right now are in a position where we’re being carried through a rough situation or problem in our life. It’s wonderful to know that we have our Lord there in order to carry us when times get low and things get rough.

Often we don’t take the necessary time with our Lord in prayer and communication. But do you know what? He loves us anyway. He loves us unconditionally. And that’s why we need to pull together some type of system in our lives where we can spend valuable time in prayer. It doesn’t have to be long, either. Sometimes we get turned off because we feel it takes so much time, but it doesn’t have to be long.

How to Get Started
As with everything else, we need the proper tools and materials. I would recommend a small notebook, perhaps a small ring binder. Get some coloured tabs, some paper, some dividers, and a pen.

Be sure to have your Bible handy. Sometimes you may want to do a little Bible study with yourself as you go into your prayer time, so it’s always nice to have your Bible with you. As I pray, I find that many times God reveals something to me in His Word. If I’m praying for someone, I sometimes feel really impressed to drop that person a note and tell him I’m praying for him, supporting him. At times like this I like to be able to give a Bible verse, so it’s nice to have my Bible close by.

Colossians 4:2 (NASB) says that we are to “devote [ourselves] to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Our attitude as we come to the Lord should be one of thanksgiving. Christ is waiting for us. His attitude toward us is love. And our attitude in return should be one of thanksgiving.

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