Monday January 26, 2009

Pray like this: 

Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

 Matthew 6:9 (New Living Translation)

~~~ 

Setting Up a Prayer & Praise Journal

Part 2

Setting up the master page

 1. Open your blank document named – 01

You should be looking at a blank page, unless you already added notes. 

My outline has three major headlines. 

Praise

Prayer

Insight for the Day

I begin with praise, because it is a good way for me to begin my day.  Choose your outline.  You may want to begin with prayer and close with praise.  You may not want to include insights.  This is your journal – make your outline work for you.

I would love to hear what you have chosen for your outline.

Praise

Enter a praise item for today

I will share some of my favorite excerpts and adaptions from “31 Days of Praise” during the month of February. My journal began as a journal of praise before I began adding prayer concerns. You may adapt this area to your desires and personality.

Prayer

I have five items in my outline under prayer:

Personal, Family, Family Birthdate, Daily Requests, Special Requests.

Personal

This may change as God lays new things on my heart. If I change it, I usually copy and paste the change on all thirty-one days – but not every day has to be the same.

This is my current prayer for myself:

Stay in my face today – compelling me to look in Your face.

Remind me to listen – to think before I answer.

Teach me to grow in mercy.

Teach me to trust You in everything.

I love You.  I love Your Word.  I love being a daughter of “The King.”

Many times the above prayer reminds me of an area where I have not obeyed – causing me to hang my head in shame, making it difficult for me to look in God’s face, or maybe I have not taken time to listen, or have not applied mercy or trust. 

The next part of my prayer outline is my immediate family:

Family

This is where I pray for our mothers (our fathers are deceased), Cerwin, our children, and grandchildren.  I currently open this section with this prayer, before reading their names. 

Thank you for our family. Bless them with Your protection, power, and wisdom today. Let them be a blessing to those they meet, and guide them to people who will bless and encourage them.

Parent (put names in place of these titles)

Husband

Child – Spouse – Grandchild – Grandchild – Grandchild

(We have four children, so I repeat this four times.)

Adapt this prayer and list to your immediate family.

As I bring each name to the Lord, He may remind me of something that Cerwin, a parent, a child, or grandchild is currently facing.  If it is something serious, I may write it here – or at the end where I list special requests.

PS:  Our aunts, uncles, and cousins are listed in the once-a-month alphabetical list – rather than daily. That is your choice. I try to keep this as simple as possible. I am not a person who prays long prayers, but I do want to keep them in my prayer journal.

This journal is just to set the course of my day – to be in a godly attitude – an attitude of prayer – a daily reminder of Who is truly in charge of my life.

 

Continued tomorrow morning.