If you’ve spent any time praying, you know what it’s like to feel like you’re praying the same things over and over again. You know what it’s like to get bored in prayer. You know what it’s like to have no words or regurgitate the same “Lord, can you help with this…” and not know what to say beyond that.
I have experienced all those things so I get it! It’s why written prayers are one of our top requests and why we created Springboard Prayers. It’s also why you’ll find prayers all over Pinterest and social media. We want help with the words to say!
But I’ve also experienced what it’s like to get excited about prayer or to spend 15 minutes on one request because there’s so much to cover when I see it from all angles. I’ve prayed with vibrancy and I’ve had my heart changed in prayer.
Last year, I felt weary praying the same things over and over again in one specific area. I wanted to see the things that have been prayer requests for the last 10 years with fresh eyes. I literally got out a big sheet of paper and started thinking through specifics. What I wrote was a mix of things I sometimes think to pray for, other things that rarely cross my mind and those things that always feel top of mind.
Even as someone who has been praying for a long time and feels like I cover so many different aspects in prayer, it was a reassuring guardrail that I was looking at this one big request in a 360 view and not just a flat, “Lord, help ______ to work out.”
If your prayer life feels boring, I think the approach I’m going to share will help you turn a corner to a more vibrant prayer life, going past dull surface-level requests and instead examining your heart with the Creator of the universe.
Our prompted prayer journal format, seen in our Compose, Signature, and Rhythms Prayer Journals, was created to help you know WHAT to pray. This new supplementary tool will help you know HOW to pray.
Grab your prompted prayer journal and choose one nagging request that’s got you feeling stuck or unsure of how to pray. It could be:
The heaviest need in your life currently
One prayer from each section of your prayer journal
One prayer for each child
You can make one for every goal for the new year
Got it? Great! I’m going to walk you through 12 guided prayer steps, and I think you’ll be shocked at how deep you can go with one prayer.