One of the simplest things you can do to strengthen your prayer life is simply to make a list of things you want to pray about. Many of us have experienced coming into a prayer time with great intentions, and then running out of things to say in about a minute and a half. A simple list, however short or long, can be extremely helpful in focussing your prayer time.

As with all of these tools, think of the prayer list as a launchpad, but it never needs to become a “law”! On some days, you may pray through your list quickly, and on others, the Holy Spirit may really catch your attention on one point in particular and you may just camp out there in a while. Some days you may have something else completely on your heart and never even get to the list. That’s okay! The goal is to connect with God.

As we talked about with scheduling time for prayer, even getting through your prayer list 70% or 80% of the time is way better than not even trying and doing 0%. I promise, if you make a list you WILL pray for those things more than if they weren’t written down anywhere at all.

What should be on your list? Broadly speaking, you might think about three categories:

Personal

• spiritual growth
• needs
• future
• ministry

People and places

• family and friends
• leaders in your life
• people you lead
• cities
• churches/ministries
• missions

Justice

• government
• abortion
• racial issues
• human trafficking
• current events

What should you pray for these topics? The best advice is to pray biblically. Pray some of the key prayers of the Bible over these people, groups, and situations. A great resource is this list of apostolic prayers found in Scripture. I have a tattered copy of this sheet from 2012 always in my Bible. You can also check out this longer list of apostolic prayers.

Here’s a taste of the key themes and phrases of these prayers:

• For wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God (Eph. 1:17)
• For strengthening with might in the inner being (Eph. 3:16, Col. 1:11)
• For love to abound (Phil. 1:9, 1 Thes. 3:12)
• For the knowledge of God’s will (Col. 1:9)
• That the Word of the Lord would run swiftly [rapidly spread and powerfully take hold] (2 Thes. 3:1)
• To glorify God in unity, with joy, peace, and hope (Rom. 15:5-6, 13)
• To preach with boldness and power (Acts 4:29-30)

These prayers can easily be adapted to any context, but sometimes for justice issues, I like to dig into the Psalms and prophetic scriptures:

• “The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed…” (Ps. 9:9)
• “O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will… do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed…” (Ps. 10:17-18)
• “The LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives…” (Is. 61:1)

You can use my lists as a starting point, but as praying Scripture becomes a habit you will quickly discover your own favorite verses! I promise, using the language of Scripture will make praying through your prayer list come so much more alive.

I need to say this one more time… DON’T LET THIS OVERWHELM YOU!

Again, your list is a launching pad, not law. You do not have to limit your prayers to the topics you write down, and more importantly, you do NOT have to pray for all of it every single day! It may help to break your list into mini daily lists, so that you’re praying for just a handful of things each day. Praying Bible verses is a great idea, but again, don’t become so tied to it that you’re crippled if you can’t think of just the right verse.

Finally, find a way to work your prayer list into your daily routine. Use it as a bookmark and pray through it for ten minutes before you read your Bible, or tape it to your steering wheel and pray on your way to work. The goal of this tool, and in fact of all of the tools in this series, is to find what works for YOU to help YOU pray more. Adapt these ideas as you see fit, and happy praying!

Do you use a prayer list? What’s on yours, or what would be if you started doing this? Tell me in the comments!