Prayer Cards: A simple tool that really works

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Update: It’s now been 14 months of using these prayer cards each day, and I have to say: I love them! The word for me recently has been FOCUS, and these cards help me focus in prayer, on specific, scriptural things in line with God’s heart and will, to intentionally intercede for. It’s been so fun to see circles, smiley-faces, dates and “Yay God!” notes scribbled all over different places as answers become apparent. Specifically with my kids and husband, this has been an excellent way to focus in on different areas and see God really move in their lives and mine. I hope this can be helpful for you too! 

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Yesterday as she opened her Bible, a stack of colored index cards slipped out onto the floor. I had to smile. I knew exactly what they were and why she likely kept them with her all the time.

Because I do too!

I’ve been a Christian for almost 30 years, but I just started really praying two months ago. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but the change in my prayer life has been just that–dramatic.

Because of what? Prayer Cards.

Now, I’ve often used assorted types of prayer cards in the past but these specifically have so powerfully transformed my times in prayer. I’d love to share them with you!

They come from Paul Miller’s book A Praying Life. If you have not yet read this book, please click over immediately to Amazon and purchase a copy. Now.

He leads a journey into becoming childlike and honest in our prayers, identifying real needs and strategically praying in specific ways over those things. He helps us learn to pray God’s Word over each situation and continue persevering in asking, seeking, knocking over and over and over. For me, the journey was learning to pray with greater

  • focus
  • purpose
  • confidence
  • patience
  • faith

When I first heard of these prayer cards I admit I felt a slight, “Been there, done that,” cynicism flitting through my mind. But my dear friend Elisha was so enthusiastic about them I finally cheated and skipped to the back of the book to see what the hype was all about.

I was hooked. I spent the weekend making my own, and dove in to praying through them each day. Almost immediately I started seeing results! It was crazy! That first week I gushed through all the ways I’d seen God answer the specific, Scripture-based prayers from the week before. A part of me wondered if the novelty would wear off, but I’m 2-months in and still loving this helpful tool. Of course, it’s just a tool. God is what’s powerful, not the cards. But they are, in my opinion, an insanely helpful tool. Paul Miller has been using his for decades and still finds them immensely helpful in his own personal prayer life.

So what are they? Just a way to identify the people and needs around you that God has called you specifically to strategically pray for: Miller gives a sample deck in his book (p.232). They are roughly broken into Repentance, Family & Friends, Specific Needs, Ministry, Work, Co-Workers, Other Relationships, Dreams, etc.

Mine look like this (I put them on a metal ring so I can flip through):

photo (95)

  • Repentance cards (2-3): These are things I need to regularly confess to God and ask for His help in overcoming my tendency to sin in this area. My current two are titled “Unbelief” and “Pride”–they include specific ways I tend toward these sins, and specific scriptures on each to pray through each morning.
  • Immediate Family (3): One each for Jeff, Heidi, and Dutch, with specific verses, characteristics, and/or issues to pray for each one, each day. (I’ve seen huge answers to prayer on these ones! Miller says “I do my best parenting through prayer.”)
  • Extended family cards (2): I have one for my “Zyp-side” family members and one for my “Patterson-side” family members, with a word or two, or a verse.
  • Close friends (1): I have a few close friends listed here, with specific (ongoing) needs, and notes jotted down when answers come or other needs arise.
  • Healing (1): Here I have the names of people I am specifically and faithfully praying for physical healing every day, along with verses (Acts 3:16, Ex. 15:26, Matt 8:16, and others) regarding healing.
  • Salvation (1): I now see how healing and “salvation” are partly one and the same, but this card refers to those who do not yet follow Jesus as their Savior and King. Romans 10:9 is written across the top to pray for each of these people.
  • Bible Study (1): Here I pray for the 21 ladies who are currently involved in Women’s Bible Study. I don’t pray for each of them every day by name, but I look over the list each day, pray over them in general, and usually pick a few to pray for individually.
  • Retreats (1): Here I pray specific scriptures over all my speaking events, asking God for boldness and humility, and praying for life change, repentance, salvation, freedom, faith, and joy. 
  • Renew (1): Here I pray specific, scriptural verses over Renew, for the elders, for increased influence for the gospel, for unity and love, and jot down specific things that come to mind and ways I believe God wants me to pray. This is a fun card!
  • Renew fam (1): I know that if we get bigger I won’t be able to list everyone on one card! But for now I can. I listed all the last-names of the families of Renew all on a card. Again, I don’t pray for each one every day, but I’ll pick several each day.
  • Missionaries (1): Here I list the 5 main ministries we support and pray for each one.
  • Sacred Mundane (1): Here I pray specific things for this ministry, this blog, my book project, etc. 
  • Personal (1): Finally, I dream. 🙂 I pray for specific dreams I think God has placed in my heart, and for any personal things I desire to see God do, according to His will. 

And of course prayer is not simply reading over these cards each day. These cards are a diving board, a place to begin and then leap into a conversation with the Father and pour out my heart, listen to His Spirit, and pray as He leads. But the cards keep me on track, and remind of what I already know to pray for, according to His Word, so my prayer time doesn’t end up being an exercise in mind-wandering and mental grocery-list making.

Of course I’m still a beginner in prayer, but the change has been dramatic in my prayer life. I’m enjoying prayer, looking forward to it, feeling confident in it, and seeing real results. I get discouraged less often and see more “incremental answers”–little ways I see God moving even if the “end result” answer remains unfinished. I can honestly say I’m learning to love to pray.

This, perhaps, is the greatest answer of all.

{Thanks for reading.}

You Are Rich

Devotional Thoughts0

This past weekend I had the joy of sharing some good news with God’s women and I think He wants you to hear it too. Here it is: YOU ARE RICH.

See, the enemy wants to keep you from being effective in making disciples, by making you think you don’t have what it takes. You don’t have the skills, or smarts, or abilities, or gifts, or talents, or resources, or time.

We say it to ourselves all the time: I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have the spiritual gifts or talents.

I don’t have what it takes. In other words, I’m poor. Any time we fixate on our own lack, we are speaking with our lives, “I’m poor.” I’m poor in time. I’m poor in money. I’m poor in talent or ability.

Truth: If you are in Christ Jesus, YOU ARE RICH! 

Did you know that when you are “in Christ” — ALL THE RESOURCES of Jesus Christ are at your disposal? Did you know that the same spirit that lived in Jesus, LIVES IN US? Did you know the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is now at work in us? Did you know we are called (and equipped and enabled!) to do the exact same works Jesus did? Did you know Scripture says, “Even greater works than these will you do.” That God will empower us to do the works of Jesus and even great works!

The disciples didn’t have money. They didn’t have extraordinary resources at their disposal. And yet, when they followed Jesus, and did what Jesus told them to do, limitless resources were channeled through their lives for the sake of the multitudes. We need only look at the well-known story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, right? Matthew chapter 14 gives us the perfect example.

There are thousands of people around, right? I mean, 5,000 is only counting the men. We’ve got women and children too, people! In our church, if we only counted men we’d say we have a church of about 20. Ha! But we really have close to 100! Truly. We have that many women and children! We’re probably talking at last 10,000 people. That’s an INSANE number of mouths to feed. You think it’s hard to keep your kids full? You think you have a lot of mouths to feed?

You think God is calling you to something that you don’t have enough resources for? I guarantee you are not called to something more outlandish than this. This is impossible.

God specializes in impossible. In fact, you usually know some ministry opportunity is from Him if it seems entirely impossible. I have a little story about an ARK that is a prime example. 😉

The disciples are quick to point out that they don’t have the resources they need:

“This is a desolate place, and the day is now over, send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” (V. 15)

Do you hear it? “We are poor.”

1. We are poor in location: “This is a desolate place.” See, Jesus, my location isn’t ideal. I don’t have a great house for ministry. I don’t have enough space. I don’t have the right table or dishes or environment or …. This isn’t the ideal place, Jesus. See, I’m poor.

2. We are poor in time: “The day is now over.” See, Jesus, there isn’t time. I don’t have enough time for this thing. The time that’s needed for something like this just isn’t available to me. The day is over, so to speak. See, I’m poor.

So they come up with their own plan, based entirely upon what they perceive as a LACK. “Send the crowds away to go into the village and buy food for themselves.” We don’t have the resources we need, so put them problem on the people. Make them take care of themselves. Make them hike back into town and use their own money to buy food. We don’t have enough, so there’s no way we’re taking on their problem.

They are literally making a plan based on being poor.

How often do we do that?! We construct a plan, a scheme, a strategy, based on our own lack of resources. We look at what we have, then plan. God does exactly the opposite, always. He makes the plan (that’s usually impossible), and then provides the resources to carry out His plan.

Jesus responds and tells them,

“No, they don’t need to go away. YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT.”

Notice Jesus doesn’t say, “No worries. I’ll take care of it.” It is His power, but He’s not taking the responsibility off of them, He’s putting it smack dab ON THEM. He says clearly:

“YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT.”

So they give reason #3 that they are poor:

3. We are poor in resources. “We have only give loaves here and two fish.” See, Jesus I don’t have the resources. I don’t have enough money to give this away, or host this thing, or start this ministry, or provide for these people. Ask a rich person! Why on earth would you ask me for this thing? See, I’m poor.

And Jesus responds so simply to them and to us:

“BRING THEM HERE TO ME.”

Bring what you have here to me. Bring me your terrible location. Bring me your lack of time. Bring me your empty bank account and tiny income. Bring me YOU.

“Bring all you have in your hands and put it into Mine. I’ll do the miracle.” 

He blessed it, broke it, and HANDED IT BACK to them. And they were the ones who distributed to the masses. Do you see that?

Jesus Himself didn’t hand out a single piece of bread. Jesus didn’t feed the small child. Jesus didn’t look the lady in the eye and say, “Eat your fill!”

The disciples took what was in their hands, gave it to Jesus, then received it back into their hands, and distributed it to those in need.

All it took was handing it over to Jesus, for them to go from POOR to RICH. In an instant, they said, “WOW, I AM RICH!”

Do you know that every single one of us can say that too? When you take your pittance of an amount, your tiny salary, your teeny sliver of “free time,” your pitiful location, and you take this measly offering and give it to Jesus, He blesses it and hands it back and you look down and realize, “Wow! I am rich!”

{Praying you know and rejoice and act on this freeing truth this week. Thanks for reading!}

Because everyone needs an Abishai

Devotional Thoughts0

All I can think about these days is the blessing of relationship. During our insanely busy period of moving, finishing the book, and traveling, we were carried by the faithfulness of friends. People spending days helping us move, cleaning our old house, moving our chickens for us while we were out of the country, people giving up hours and hours of free time to do our dirtiest work, family members generously blessing us on our trip, people demonstrating such selflessness. I told a friend the other day I felt like all I’ve done is receive from people for the last 3 weeks. I’ve been so blown away by the generosity of people. So grateful.

This morning, my first morning in our new house, I curled up early with my Bible and saw an unsung hero who reminded me of the incredible blessing of relationship, of friendship.

I love these unsung heroes. That is, I love looking closely at peripheral characters, the ones in the shadows, behind the scenes. I think someday these quietly courageous folks will be lauded for their faithfulness, and I think we’re wise to keep our eyes peeled for these people, to learn from their example.

One of these guys is Abishai.

Abishai?

Yes, Abishai. Everyone needs an Abishai.  Abishai is an unconventional hero in scripture, almost entirely overlooked by most of us. But I’ll tell you one person who did NOT overlook Abishai:

David.

We all remember King David, but I guarantee you King David remembered Abishai because this guy was one of a kind. And while he may be a minor character in the grand scheme of things, I think that everyone needs an Abishai.  So, who was he?

Abishai was one of David’s friends, one of his many mighty men. When David called to all his men and asked who would go down with him into the camp of Saul (who was trying to kill David), one man spoke up:

“I will go down with you!”  (1 Sam 26:6)

That was Abishai.

Then, as they crept into Saul’s camp by night, Abishai says,

“God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” (1 Sam 26:8)

He was eager to take out anyone who messed with his friend David.

Later, when David’s son Absalon commits treason and threatens to take over the kingdom, forcing David out of Jerusalem, as David is fleeing there was someone who followed after David cursing at him as he walked. David stays quiet, keeping his peace. But Abishai? His response:

“Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” (2 Sam. 16:9)

Um… that’s awesome. That’s the kind of friend I want to have. 

Sure, it’s great to have friends who hold us accountable, who say, “Hm…maybe you should really take into consideration the curses he’s slinging at you. Maybe there’s some truth in them. Maybe you should examine your heart and motives and see if any of it is true.”

That’s great.

But also, every needs an Abishai. 

We all need a friend whose response will be, “He’s a dead dog! Let me go over and take off his head!” :)

Later we read:

“And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him.” 2 Sam. 21:16-17

Did you just read that??

We always praise David for slaying Goliath, but this is just as amazing! And as this bloodthirsty giant comes to kill David, Abishai fearlessly flings himself in the way of danger and kills the enemy to protect his friend.

Everyone needs an Abishai. 

The friend who is so fiercely loyal she will go to any length to protect us. Who will throw themselves in the way of our enemies, who will threaten to take off the head of whoever curses us.

We could all use a friend like that, amen??

And so, perhaps you can be an Abishai to someone today. Because sometimes we just need a fiercely faithful friend who is overly eager to protect us in this bloody battle life. May we have one and be one …

…because everyone needs an Abishai.

{Here’s to the many quietly courageous men and women out there, fiercely faithful Abishais. Thank you for your loyal service for the sake of others. You’re heroes. Thanks for reading.}