Build in daily rhythms and routines this month to set a precedent for the future:
RECEIVE a 7am text message with stories, encouragements and prayers for the day ahead
JOIN US at Church at St John's 9 - 10am for Morning Prayer and worship
PAUSE and pray at Church or on Youtube from 1 - 2pm
ENCOUNTER evenings 7.30 - 9pm
RETREAT as you go to sleep with Night Prayer or Compline liturgies
Prayer Prompts
Request
Seek and ask God, Jesus asks in the gospels, 'what do you want me to do for you?' (Matthew 7.11)
Relationship
Delve into the heart of God, his power and intimacy, Moses at the Burning Bush 'who are you?' (Exodus 3 & 4)
Relinquish
Wrestle, leave behind or give over our fears, dreams, anxieties, conflicts, motives to God as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22.39-46)
The ACTS acronym looks like this:
Adoration: Praising God for who he is
Confession: Humbly acknowledging your sin before God
Thanksgiving: Praising God for what he has done and expressing gratitude for it
Supplication: Asking God to provide for your needs or the needs of others.
The PRAY acronym looks like this:
Praise: Praising God for who he is
Repent: Humbly acknowledging your sin before God
Ask: Asking God to provide for your needs or the needs of others.
Yield: An act of submission to his will in your life.
Prayer Journaling
Keeping a prayer journal can be a great way of capturing the patterns and themes of God's faithfulness in your life, and prompting us to persevere in prayer when it seems tough. In the Old Testament we see how God delivers his people and each time commands them to build a tower of stones to mark his provision and prompt the retelling of God's provision.
Read Joshua chapters 1 to 4
Joshua 4.24: He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.
- Write prayer requests down and record how God is answering or developing those requests over time to celebrate and or recall God's goodness.
- Write or draw what you want to say to God and then stop to listen and write down what you feel the Holy Spirit is saying in that moment. This then leads into further prayer and recording how God is answering prayers.
- Collect your prayers, notes and dreams, reflections from a book you've read or sermons you've heard almost like a big scrapbook of all God is saying and doing over a long period of time.
- There's no right or wrong way, you don't have to do it every day, but keeping a record all in one place, perhaps with people or places you're praying for noted in there too, helps prompt, mark and celebrate our journeys with God.
Book list
Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home Richard Foster
Journalling the Psalms Paula Gooder
How to Hear God Pete Grieg
Whisper Mark Batterson
Prayer: A Force That Causes Change; Time to Pray, Volume 5 – David Williamson
A Hunger for God John Piper