A few years ago during my senior year at IHOPU, one of my teachers gave us an assignment to only pray for our own souls for three full days. No praying for other people or outside circumstances at all. That’s not an easy assignment to give a community of intercessors! I don’t think I realised when I started how hard it would be. When a major piece of a ministry trip I was leading fell through and I started freaking out, I had to force myself to pray for peace instead of immediately asking God to fix it.

Those three days taught me a lot about myself. Even though I had a pretty active prayer life, I quickly realised how much of my prayer life was based on asking God to fix external problems, rather than asking Him to grow my heart.

Your soul, heart, inner man – choose your descriptor – is the center of your being and the place the rest of your life flows out of. (Proverbs 4:23) Paul prayed that the church would be “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16 NKJV). Scripture also often paints our heart as a garden or vineyard, describing a place that needs to be tended and cultivated. (Song of Solomon 1:6; 4:12-16; Isaiah 5:7; 58:11; Jeremiah 31:12; Matthew 13:19-23) We want our hearts to be prepared as a dwelling place for God, like the Garden of Eden, where the fruits of the Spirit can grow.

In praying for our souls, we are asking God, the gardener (John 15:1), to help grow those good fruits in us. Using Paul’s language, we are asking Him to help us strengthen our inner man (Ephesians 3:16). (Yes, you can still pray this if you’re a woman!) As we pray for our own hearts, the inner storm of worry, distraction, and wrong priorities will gradually calm as we are transformed more and more into the image of Jesus.

So what are specific ways we can pray for our souls? As always, I’m going to recommend we start by praying directly from the Word.

1. Pray the First Commandment

The first commandment is a tall order and one we will forever be growing in–but we will grow more if we ask God to help us give attention to each of these four areas.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
(Mark 12:30)

2. Pray to Know and Experience God’s Love

God already loves us fully without us asking Him to, but we live so far below the actual understanding and experience of that love. As we encounter His love more, He empowers us to love Him in return!

“…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…”
(Ephesians 3:17-19)

3. Pray for the Fruit of the Spirit

Go through the list in Galatians 5 and ask God to grow these fruits in the garden of your heart.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”
(Galations 5:22)

4. Pray the Apostolic Prayers

The actual prayers of the apostles in the New Testament are a gold mine of ways to pray for your own heart! Check out my post on praying apostolic prayers, and instead of praying them as intercession for others, apply them to yourself!

“…that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;”
(Colossians 1:9-11)

5. Pray for a Focussed Life After God

David set the most incredible example in Psalm 27:4 – he said that his number one life focus was simply to be with God, look at God, and talk to God. Even if we aren’t there yet, we can certainly ask God to help us make Him our “one thing”.

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”
(Psalm 27:4)

As we set out to practice praying for our souls, this can become a daily practice and even a minute-by-minute habit.

Practical tips:

• As my teacher assigned my class, try to go three days, or even just one, seeking to focus your prayers on praying for your own soul.
• Practice holding a phrase or verse in your mind and coming back to it often throughout the day: “God, help me love You with my all heart soul, mind, and strength.” “Root me and ground me in Your love.” “Be my one thing.“
• Make a prayer list to incorporate into your scheduled prayer time that’s specifically focussed on how you want to grow internally.

Do you spend time praying for your own heart? What are some other ways or verses we can practice praying for our souls? Tell me in the comments!