Stone Soup for Five: Prayer Journal, the final sections

Prayer Journal, the final sections

If you missed any of the steps, I've now listed all of them under the TUTORIALS tab above!




For the final part of putting together your prayer binder, we'll go through the tabs I pray for once a week with a specific theme, and then the final three tabs that I pray through daily.


The one-tab-a-day pages are broken down as follows:





Monday is for Family.  Since I have specific pages for each of my immediate family, this section is for all the extended family.


Tuesday is for Christian Friends.  This is a great section to write down specific requests they have and keep up to date with friends who you don't see regularly.  I love being able to pray for them, then once a month or so shooting them an email or catching them at church to get an update on how I can continue or change praying for them.


Wednesday is Non-Christian Friends.  All the friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances in your life who you'd like to pray for and see come to Christ.


Thursday is Church and Missionaries.  If you can, you might want to divide this up to one day for church and one for Missionaries. It's really hard to get through this in just a few minutes, and so crucial to pray for them!  I printed out some great prayer guides from Wycliffe Translators.  I also went to our church's website and printed off a list of the leaders of our church and emailed them for specific ways I can be praying for them.  Like the friends list, I'll email them again in a month or two for updates or new prayer requests.


Friday is Our Nation.   I pray for our leaders and our nation as a whole.  There are some GREAT prayer calendars on getamericapraying.com  and on Billy Graham's site.  If you Google search for more ideas on prayers for our nation, you'll get even more information.  I printed out these guides and pray through a week's worth on the calendar on Friday.  I also searched for our nation's leaders and wrote down the names of not only the president, but also his counselor, the cabinet members, the heads of the departments of the United States, and the Supreme Court Justices.  I did the same for my state's leaders and our local city council.


I pray for The World on the weekend. You can either clump Saturday and Sunday together like I did, or pray for the World on Saturday and maybe divide up that Church and Missionaries day separating one onto Sunday.  The nation I chose to pray for right now is Japan because we have Missionaries who go there and bring back prayer requests and updates for us.  Right now I'm praying specifically for the Fountain of Life Bible Church in Japan.  Our missionary said it was a "hard church" with a lot of struggles. (I'd love it if you would add them to your prayer list too!) 


I'm also praying for a group of men called "The Mighty Men" who are working hard to bring down sex traffickers in the world.


I just keep a running list in this section of specific areas that I add to when I hear of a need. The book The Hour that Changes the World has an amazing guide for praying for the lost of the world with specific questions to pray for them for their hearts to be prepared.  I love it and it makes me really feel a part of what God is doing in the world.



These last three tabs I pray through daily.  
They are Listen, Thanks, and Praise.




Listen is where I think of specific questions I have for God.  This section has lots of blank paper for me to ask questions and think through things on paper.  I ask a lot of questions like How can I keep you center today?  or What is going to hit me this week? Today?  Where do I need to improve? Where am I going to be tempted?  Now of course, I don't audibly hear God's answer to any of these, but sometimes there is a verse that will come to mind, or an answer that I kind of already know and I can add that or think through it.  I love this section.  For you, it would be whatever listening to God looks like for you.  Is it asking questions?  Journaling verses that come to mind?  There's no right or wrong way to listen, just use this time to calm your thoughts and focus.




Thanks is the second to last tab for my binder and The Hour that Changes the World has some pretty specific ways to pray here.  Basically you allow your mind to wander through yesterday's activities and think through what points you can specifically give thanks for.  They also have a list of ways to think of and pray through specific ways you've been blessed in life.  





The final tab is Praise.  We started with a Praise tab and we end there too. But they are different.  The first is more about adoration of who God is, and this tab is more an acto fo maginfication.  Praying for God to be huge in your life and the lives of the other's you're praying for.  I also have a quote from Martin Luther that I love written here.


Well, that's it for the Prayer Binder.  I hope you set one up that works for you and if you have any questions or thoughts, let me know in the comments!  You guys have great ideas to add to this, so keep them coming!



11 comments:

  1. My daughter and I are working on making binders right now. One section I want to add is a calender of important days for people, both good and bad. We just had a dear lady dye in my church and I know people will be grieving. Next year at this time I want to be remembering that in prayer.

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  2. I love it! It goes along with my word for 2015~ SIMPLE!

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  3. SO helpful to see the last tabs. I just finished the Hour That Changes the World and I loved it!!! So inspiring and encouraging, and yet I've felt a little stuck still on how to actually go for it. Thank you for this kick in the rear. I also *loved* that quote from Martin Luther and highlighted it when I read the book. Thank you, Kari!

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    1. I loved that book too. I actually keep it near my binder and Bible in my tote and refer back to it a lot! So glad to have found it! Get that binder done and send me a pic!

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  4. I just stumbled upon your site the other day and am so thankful God lead me to it! I have been wanting to do a journal for some time and wanted a fun way to put it together and a thorough way to process through it. Thank you so much for the tutorials! I even snagged a few things you wrote down that applied to our life right now. Thanks again! :)

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  5. I lead a group of girls that are about to enter High School! We are making these together!! Thank you!!

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  6. Thank you for your entire series on your prayer journal. It has been the most helpful I have seen anywhere. Once I have mine set up, I plan to teach my teenage daughter how to set up one.

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