Seven Simple Prayer Tips - John Piper
1. Use a List.
Use a list, and break it up in categories (Friends, family, neighbors, missionaries, healing, salvation, various ministries, members of your church, etc
2. Concentric Circles
Think and pray in concentric circles with the closest relationships near the center and then move out to the more anonymous prayers for groups and ministries and nations. Pray in concentric circles, from your closest relationships out to all the nations.
3. Use the Word of God
Pray the word of God over the people on your lists. This will keep your prayers from being merely repetitive. Read the word of God first. Meditate on it. Pray in it. Then pray what God shows you from the word for the people that are appointed to be prayed for that day.
4. Compare Your Prayers
Periodically assess your prayers for them by comparing what you pray with what the New Testament prays (40 different prayers). I use that list not every day, but periodically. I just run through it and say: Okay, am I neglecting anything important that the New Testament prayed for?
5. General and Specific
Mingle general prayers with specific prayers. A lot of people are skittish about general prayers. I love general prayers. Like: Hallowed be thy name all over the world. That is a big, general prayer. Specific prayers are also important. So a specific prayer might be: Grant that Bill would find a job this week. He has been out of work, Lord. Help him find a job. That is specific. You can just see the answer to that immediately. A general prayer would be: Lord, cause Bill to love you more and to treasure you above all. That is a lot harder to detect, right? But so crucial that you pray for it.
6. Moment of Quiet
Be quiet over the people and see if God brings things to mind that people might need today and then pray for those things if God brings anything specific to mind.
7. Look for Answers
And lastly, I would say: Look for answers. Take note of them. Keep some kind of record, maybe in your journal or in another folder: answers. And what keeps it all fresh and authentic is the way it all flows from the word and goes back to the word, the Scriptures. And I can’t stress enough that we don’t want to become rote. We don’t want to become mechanical and repetitive. And the best way to do that is to let the word be fresh daily and let the word make your prayers for people fresh daily.
Use a list, and break it up in categories (Friends, family, neighbors, missionaries, healing, salvation, various ministries, members of your church, etc
2. Concentric Circles
Think and pray in concentric circles with the closest relationships near the center and then move out to the more anonymous prayers for groups and ministries and nations. Pray in concentric circles, from your closest relationships out to all the nations.
3. Use the Word of God
Pray the word of God over the people on your lists. This will keep your prayers from being merely repetitive. Read the word of God first. Meditate on it. Pray in it. Then pray what God shows you from the word for the people that are appointed to be prayed for that day.
4. Compare Your Prayers
Periodically assess your prayers for them by comparing what you pray with what the New Testament prays (40 different prayers). I use that list not every day, but periodically. I just run through it and say: Okay, am I neglecting anything important that the New Testament prayed for?
5. General and Specific
Mingle general prayers with specific prayers. A lot of people are skittish about general prayers. I love general prayers. Like: Hallowed be thy name all over the world. That is a big, general prayer. Specific prayers are also important. So a specific prayer might be: Grant that Bill would find a job this week. He has been out of work, Lord. Help him find a job. That is specific. You can just see the answer to that immediately. A general prayer would be: Lord, cause Bill to love you more and to treasure you above all. That is a lot harder to detect, right? But so crucial that you pray for it.
6. Moment of Quiet
Be quiet over the people and see if God brings things to mind that people might need today and then pray for those things if God brings anything specific to mind.
7. Look for Answers
And lastly, I would say: Look for answers. Take note of them. Keep some kind of record, maybe in your journal or in another folder: answers. And what keeps it all fresh and authentic is the way it all flows from the word and goes back to the word, the Scriptures. And I can’t stress enough that we don’t want to become rote. We don’t want to become mechanical and repetitive. And the best way to do that is to let the word be fresh daily and let the word make your prayers for people fresh daily.