Five Prayer Methods to Try This Fall
By: Ashley Davis
At Following Titus 2, our main goal is to equip you and encourage you to have daily time with God in Bible study and prayer. Sometimes, our prayer time can become stale or stagnant. Other times, we discover that the method we’ve been using in our personal prayer time is no longer serving us well or is not a good fit for the stage of life we’re in. We’ve compiled a handful of ideas from our FT2 staff to give you some fresh methods to try this season. We encourage you to try a new method! You never know if one of these ideas may be a good fit for you until you’ve tried, tweaked it, and made it your own!
Recommendation by Bradyn Ouellette: 90 Day Prayer Journal - FT2
I like having a template during my prayer time to keep my mind focused. I write each box first and then pray it out loud.
I like to use the Bible study notes page if I want to go into a deep study about a certain topic from the Bible.
Recommendation by Ashley Davis:
I have used a guided, fill-in-the-box style prayer journal for years, but recently felt like I need to spend more time praying out loud, rather than just writing my prayers. The main problem I have with just free praying without a guide is my ability to focus! I needed to find a way to stay focused besides just writing all my prayers. I bought a little bag of colored rocks and have used them as a prayer guide to keep me focused. Obviously, there’s nothing special or spiritual about the rocks. They’re simply color coordinated reminders for me. I hold the appropriate rock in my hand while I’m praying, and if I get distracted, I can easy look down at the rock in hand and be reminded where I was supposed to be focusing my attention! I had to be a little creative to find the right colors. If you use this method with some little trinkets, you may have more success finding appropriately colored items. You could do this with basically anything that’s small enough to be held in your hand that also comes in a variety of colors. Here’s what I went with:
Red – Prayers in RESPONSE to today’s Bible reading
Purple – PRAISE and worship
Teal – THANKSGIVING
Cream – CONFESSION
Magenta – ME
Forest Green – FAMILY
Orange – OTHERS
I usually pray for these items in this order too. It’s the same layout as our FT2 90-Day Prayer Journal.
I chose this method as a simple way to keep my focused during my prayer time while still praying out loud rather than just writing my prayers.
Recommendation by Ashley Moss:
Most of the time, I am using a binder as my prayer journal. I chose the binder instead of a notebook because I can organize my prayer topics by category. My binder is divided into Praise/Worship, Marriage/Finances, Family/Kids, Extended Family, Calvary/Ministry, Friends, and Self. The only category that I use daily is the praise and worship section. After that, I go to the categories where there are current needs, or I just pick a tab and journal a prayer for that section.
One tool I really enjoy are guided prayers as a launching point. I have one printed for every category, and if I have nothing to pray, I use these as a way to pray for that area of my life. These sheets linked below are great because they are visibly pretty, and this site has so many different ones you can use. I also like including prayer cards. I have cards from both Daily Grace Co and Purest Treasure Ministries. I will pick a card, go to the category where it applies, tape it in my journal and put a specific prayer that applies to the topic underneath the card.
If a prayer is answered then I journal a prayer of thanks, along with the date, on a sticky note and cover the prayer. This way, when I flip through the journal, the answered prayers are so easy to see. I also include pictures of my husband and children in the journal because when I pray for them, I like to see their faces.
And of course, a variety of pens, washi tape, and stickers make the journal more personal and fun!
What made you choose this method? Or why are you enjoying using this method?
I chose this method, because journaling my prayers keeps me focused and intentional with my words. I will typically read my prayers out loud after journaling them but writing them down allows me to see what I've prayed for and how He has answered the prayers.
I enjoy using the binder method because my prayers in my journal always look different. Sometimes my prayers look like a journal entry, other times they look like a list, and occasionally my prayers look like a doodle. I like that my prayers don't have to look the same every time and I think the binder really reflects the variety.
I like the binder because I can add pages in, take some out, move them around, whatever I feel like I need in that season of my life.
Favorite Links:
Recommendation by Alejandra Sorola:
I use a Journal that I call my Prayer Journal where I write down all my prayers which are sectioned with different tabs. Each tab does come with a printable. And each printable comes with prayers and scriptures to guide me. I don’t use the printable all the time but it is helpful to have them.
Writing my prayers down helps me to be more intentional with them. And I also love to look back at them and see how God is working through them. And see my answered prayers.
These are some printables that I have printed and glued to my prayer journal. My Free Printables - Loving Life at Home:
Recommendation by Amanda Medrano:
Items I use for my prayer time:
-blank notebook
-pens/highlighters
During my Bible reading/devotion time I also incorporate prayer journaling. I use the same notebook and combine my Bible notes & prayers together.
If I'm praying for something specific, I write the prayer in the journal alongside my Bible notes. Sometimes during my Bible reading something from that reading will prompt a prayer.
I use the journal during my prayer to focus on those needs.
This method works best for me because it uses minimal supplies and doesn’t require a ton of "set up" or prep time. Sometimes if I have too much to get ready before I can even start, it gets overwhelming. I like to keep it simple!
For more information about this article or other reading suggestions, feel free to contact me directly.
Do you have a prayer method or journaling tip to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
