Dave had prayed for his sister Christine every week for the last ten years. But as he read her name in the list on his prayer diary that Thursday morning, his heart sank. So much prayer, so little seemed to have come from it. His words felt tired as he prayed again: “Father, please open up the truth to her…”
Janice had promised to pray for the couple next door—they were broke and they were struggling with their marriage and their children. But what to pray for? “Lord, please bless Tom and Sarah” just seemed lame in the circumstances…
Have you ever felt like Dave or Janice? I know I have.
Most of us have a collection people and ministries we try to pray regularly for. Some of us might have a list scrawled on the back of an envelope or filed in an app. While we might know who we want to pray for, when it comes to knowing what to pray for them, many of us struggle. Before too long, we may find that our prayer list is no longer serving us; we are serving it. We start exhibiting the symptoms of a sick prayer life such as:
Time to Refresh
Lots of Christians will make a New Year’s resolution to pray more this January. But perhaps it’s not a resolution that our prayer lives need—it’s a refresh. It might help to retire your prayer list temporarily so that you can try something different; or you could refocus on praying deeply for a few people rather than briefly for many. But to truly refresh our prayer lives, we need to drill down to the core of the issue.
Because flat prayer lives contrast with the stark words of James 5 v 16: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”. So the question becomes: Are you a righteous person? If you’re trusting in Jesus, then the resounding answer is “Yes!” (Romans 3 v 23). God has forgiven you and adopted you as his child through Christ, so that you can now call on him as your Father (Romans 8 v 15). What a wonderful privilege!
God has forgiven you and adopted you as his child through Christ, so that you can now call on him as your Father (Romans 8 v 15). What a wonderful privilege!
And because we’re God’s children, we will want to pray in tune with our Father’s heart, in line with his priorities and will—that’s what will make our prayers “powerful and effective”. So one of the best solutions to a flat prayer life is to pray from God’s word. Ask yourself: “What is it that God wants to do for people, and what does he want people to do?” Then pray for those things! Those are the types of request that are a joy to make, and that our heavenly Father delights to answer.
That’s the heart behind The Good Book Company’s two new books for this new year, 5 things to pray for your church and 5 things to pray for the people you love. Each book takes Bible passages and suggests five things to pray from them for specific people or areas of church life. I hope the example in the sidebar show how drab uninspired prayers can give way to rich, God-centred prayer if we build from God’s word. Yes, it’s still a list of sorts—but it’s my prayer that they will refresh your prayer life by helping you to slow down and pray deeply; helping you to pray widely for a whole host of people and concerns; and helping you to pray biblically as you’re guided by God’s word.
Join the conversation and comment below. You can also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
Rachel Jones is the author of A Brief Theology of Periods (Yes, Really), Is This It? and several books in the award-winning Five Things to Pray series, and serves as Vice President (Editorial) at The Good Book Company. She helps teach kids at her church, King's Church Chessington, in Surrey, UK.
