Approaching your Prayer List

because "attacking your prayer list" felt a little aggressive

I should probably do a post with all my caveats, and I’m sure I’ll think of more over time but for starters:

• This post was created for a specific context, which I explain here, but if you’ve found this organically, it should make sense.

• Please also note that, in the same way that I am a Fake Librarian because I read a lot of books, I am also, at best, a fake theologian—also because I read a lot of books. My “credentials” are just that and I have a mature faith (as in both old and developed) and a heart for this stuff.

Spiritual discretion advised.

Now that that’s out of the way, Caroline posted this comment, which posed some really good practical questions:

HOW DO I ORGANIZE PRAYERS AND PRAYER REQUESTS?!?!

I'm so new to really trying to pray for people and things beyond just my own desires and requests. In the past I've had my little list of things I want and need help with, and that has felt like enough to juggle 😅 But the more prayer requests I've taken from people (from the Bible study, in my church community group, from my friends, and then for people who don't even know I'm praying for them...)

I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO ORGANIZE AND PRACTICALLY PRAY FOR SUCH A LONG LIST!

I have a list in my notebook that always ends up being longer than the page itself. Then I try to rewrite it after a few days, and it remains just as disorganized, and the list GROWS.

And then in practicality... how long am I spending on each person? This seems like such a stupid question and I am sure it is not one size fits all, but I'm genuinely curious how truly prayerful people approach this. I usually end up remembering at some point during the day: 'Oh shoot! I should pray for those people! I forgot!' And do it off the top of my head (not from the LONG list I've already made), and only the ones I remember about get a prayer, and usually it's a relatively short one, and usually I'm like "Oh God... please... be with them and... help them to lean on you" and then move on.

I know practically it should be setting aside time to go through the list, but even still, curious how people "organize" and approach a growing list of people to pray for, practically, or even in their brain.

(Is this just revealing my truly undiagnosed and untreated ADHD?)

So really, three questions here:

1. How does one organize prayers and prayer requests?

2. How does one practically pray for a long prayer list?

3. Do these questions reveal Caroline’s undiagnosed and untreated ADHD?

Before I go into these, let me be ultra clear: there are primary doctrine issues that really matter. Life or death stuff. Salvation stuff. Then there are secondary doctrine issues. We can disagree on those and still know that while they matter, they are not issues that impact our salvation. These are neither of those. This isn’t a matter of doctrine at all. I say that to make it clear that it actually doesn’t matter if you just memorize your prayer list and do your best, or if you inscribe it in stone, or keep it in a spreadsheet. But they are practical questions. And I love a practical question, especially one that can deepen a faith practice, because prayer is important. Let’s tackle these one at a time.

How does one organize prayers and prayer requests?

There is obviously not a “proper” way to organize a prayer list, but there are a couple ways that make it a lot easier to handle the second question.

Dividing your list roughly into a cycle of days or prayer times is probably the simplest way to break it down into manageable chunks. You can always pray for the urgent issues, or the ones sitting really heavily on your heart, every day, or whenever you think about them.

Divided Numerically:

If we have, say, 20 items on our prayer list, a weekly schedule could look like this:

Monday: 1-4

Tuesday: 5-8

Wednesday: 9-12

Thursday: 13-16

Friday: 17-20

Saturday: Pray through the whole list throughout the day

Sunday: Focus on praise and worship

Every day: Urgent requests or emergencies

Or this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: whole list, general*

Tuesday:1-6

Thursday: 7-12

Saturday: 8-13

Sunday: whole list, specific*

Every day: Urgent requests or emergencies

*Going to say more about this when I address the actual way we pray for them

I’m using a list of 20 as my example but if your list is a lot longer, which is probably the case if you’ve been collecting prayer requests for a minute, you can divide this differently, or even into weeks like: Week 1, 1-20, Week 2, 21-40, etc.

This is obviously pretty adaptable. You don’t even have to really have a plan, you can just sort of pray through as many as you get through today, mark it on your list, and repeat tomorrow, but I like a plan, personally, because I know how my mind works.

When it comes to personal preference, the way I organize my list when I’m REALLY on top of things is by category.

Categorized by Topic:

Part of the reason this works so well for me is that I find it easier to pray by category or topic, and I’m getting to that, but for now, here’s another sample format that is based on the content of the request.

Like this:

Monday: health needs (illness, injury, accident, etc)

Tuesday: practical needs (provision, a job, a car, money for surgery, to find a new home)

Wednesday: spiritual needs (someone struggling with their faith, seeking, or whom we just love and want to encourage and strengthen)

Thursday: circumstantial needs (going through a divorce, experiencing grief or bereavement, addiction, mental health, toxic job)

Friday: missional needs (general prayers for churches, ministries, missionaries, etc)

Saturday: global needs (prayers for political leaders, political situations, nations, states, governments, conflicts, etc)

Sunday: praise and gratitude needs (expressing thanks and praise for the “praise reports” and blessings and good things on our lists)

Or you can organize it by relationship, which I find easiest when I’m praying for my list without actually looking at the list, just because it helps me remember.

For instance:

Monday: needs of my immediate family and closest friends

Tuesday: needs of my church community, extended family, and broader friend group.

Wednesday: needs of specific people I don’t know but have on my list (friends of friends, prayer chain requests, social media requests)

Thursday: needs of the community at large, organizations, specific groups of people, professions, etc

Friday: needs related to the world, political issues, social upheavals, wars and conflicts, governments, political leadership, humanity

Saturday: praise and gratitude needs (expressing thanks and praise for the “praise reports” and blessings and good things on our lists)

Sunday: personal needs, requests, praises, and blessings

And I’ll add this again: You can always pray for the urgent issues, or the ones sitting really heavily on your heart, every day, or whenever you think about them. Having some kind of mental categories is useful for me because most of the time, I do not actually pray with my list open in front of me, but I can always remember the categories, and that is usually enough of a prompt for me to remember those that are on my list and often, a bunch of others that aren’t.

Even divided up across your week, or month, or a cycle of your choosing, it can be daunting to think of how we might pray intentionally and effectively for so many requests. There are a few ways we can think about prayers in a practical sense that might make it more manageable.

How does one practically pray for a long prayer list?

This question, the practical specifics of praying for a whole list of requests, is in fact not at all stupid. Super juicy, and again, there’s no “right” answer, or “best” way, but there’s some good stuff to know to help you think about this. For starters, harkening back to my last post on How to Pray (especially when we don’t have the words), it’s actually ok if we don’t know what to pray for folks. If we just hold them up to God in prayer like “Hi, bless these people, you know what they need” He will get the message. My method, when I’m at a loss for words, is just mentally showing God the picture in my mind of this situation and—you know—*groans spiritually*.

But again, if you WANT a system, there are several ways to approach these prayer requests, which I’m putting into four categories:

1. General and simple

2. General and detailed

3. Specific and simple

4. Specific and detailed

Here’s how I’m making sense of these terms:

General and specific refer to the requests themselves, and simple or detailed pertain to the prayers.

General: you’re praying the same prayer for all the items on your list/category/section

Specific: you’re praying specifically for each individual request

Simple: you’re asking God to bless them, help them, be present to them, etc. Not a high level of detail

Detailed: like it sounds, you’re praying deeply personalized prayers

This can go a little differently depending on whether you’re dividing it up numerically or topically. Here are some examples:

General and simple

This could look like:

“Please be with the people on my list today, bless them and protect them and give them the faith they need make it through whatever they’re going through.”

Or:

“God, please be people on my list who are experiencing health challenges, illnesses, and injuries and give them healing, peace, and the support they need.”

Some days, that’s enough, honestly. God can read, and while I think there’s a place for deeper, longer prayers, don’t underestimate the power of the simple ones.

General and detailed

This one may be a little tougher if you’re dividing up the list numerically, but it could go something like this:

“Please bless the people on my list today, and address each of their needs according to your purpose. Be with each of these people individually and collectively as they navigate health issues, heartaches, grief, financial struggles and all the other things that are plaguing your beloved people. Please comfort them and show them mercy wherever they are, let them know that you are there for them with open arms. Please provide for their needs physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually, because we know the answer to every problem lies in you. Allow me to be a blessing to these people in whatever way you have set out for me, whether through prayer or however you’re calling me to serve them. Thank you for the ways you’re already working through these issues, either behind the scenes, or boldly and obviously, and give us eyes to see your provision and mercy. I know that you love all of your creation, and I trust these people and events in your mighty hands.”

Or, if it’s topical, maybe like this:

“God, please be people on my list who are experiencing health challenges, illnesses, and injuries. You are the great physician and you care for our physical bodies as well as our souls. Please send healing to these people, and mend their bodies if that is your plan. Please surround them with people who will show them your love, and help take care of them when they need it. Please give their doctors or care teams the wisdom, time, will, and resources to treat them in the best way possible, and the kindness and compassion to do it without causing further trauma. Please provide for their financial needs during this time, and support their loved ones who suffer with them, care for them, and love them. Tend to their hearts even as you tend to their bodies, because we know that our health in this life is not guaranteed, our hope is in the resurrection.”

Specific and Simple

After the earlier examples, you probably see the pattern, but here you could pray your “simple” prayer and list each person or need individually, like:

“Please be with Sue, Miquel, Jim, Jessica, McKenzie, my church, and the people in Israel and Palestine today, bless them and protect them and give them the faith they need make it through whatever they’re going through…”

or “God, please be with: Bill, Dorothy, Isabel, Jackie, Aunt Kathy, Juanita and the people injured in the (big accident), who are experiencing health challenges, illnesses, and injuries and give them healing, peace, and the support they need…”

or, you can always bring out the big guns with…

Specific and Detailed

Self-explanatory, right?

“Please help Elizabeth while she’s going through these challenges at work. Remind her that you’re always with her, and let her feel your presence and strength as she goes about her day. Please give her the energy and faith to lean on you while she navigates this tough time, and help her stick to morals and behave ethically even when others don’t.”

This could be shorter or much, much longer, of course, but you get the idea. These are not really black and white categories, but here’s why I shared them.

They all count.

Mostly I put all of that into words because I feel like if we “define” a thing, we can acknowledge “hey, that’s a legit thing” and I want you to know that whichever way, or combination of ways you pray is a legit thing.

It’s also helpful if you do want to plan and are trying to be really intentional about it.

If you go back and look at the examples of schedules, you can see where different approaches might be applied:

• On days you pray for your whole list, a big chunk of your list, or you don’t have a lot of time or brain power, you can be more simple, and more general.

• On days where you have only a few people or requests on your list, you can be more specific and more detailed

• On a day where you want to commit to spend a lot of time in prayer, you can be specific or detailed with a larger chunk or your whole list

• You can always prioritize issues that are really urgent or timely, really important to you, or weighing really heavily on you and pray about them with greater specificity and detail

• You can pray in the general/simple quadrants for your list each day and choose one or two issues to pray with more specificity and detail on a rotating schedule

And, you know, don’t forget you can “close out” prayer requests from time to time, have a different frequency for different levels of urgency, pray for your list weekly instead of daily, or otherwise adapt this to your life, your natural patterns, your preferences, your prayer style, etc.

That brings us to number 3.

Do these questions reveal Caroline’s undiagnosed and untreated ADHD?

I don’t know, Caroline—probably.

I’m not a doctor and I don’t usually play one on the internet, but I mean…it kinda checks out.

Carrying on

While this was really a practical topic, it’s grounded in scripture. The Bible has a lot to say about prayer, no surprise, so I’m going to share some verses we can meditate on and revisit when we get hazy about the purpose or practicalities of intercessory prayer (which just means praying for other people, “interceding” for them with God, as Jesus taught us by example).

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Romans 8:26

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

Don’t allow this to be a stumbling block. Do not get dogmatic about this. If you’re the type of person who feels like if you can’t do it “right”, you shouldn’t do it at all, first of all, HELLO BRAIN TWIN, but we know that’s false, right? Sometimes I feel really called to intercessory prayer, and get super disciplined and spend my time in prayer for others really regularly. Sometimes I…don’t. A lot of times it’s just the urgent ones that I remember on a given day.

Sometimes I use my lists and methods, other times I just use them as a loose guide. I pray for folks with a whole spectrum of detail and specificity as I think of them throughout my day. I check my list when I remember to, or sometimes I manage to create a habit for awhile. Often, so often, I just ask God to help me pray, help me remember what to pray, remember TO pray.

No guilt, no shame about the hows and whens and whats. We pray because we can. We get more comfortable with prayer by praying. We get more intentional about prayer by praying. We get to pray to the God of the universe. That’s pretty cool.

A closing prayer

Dear Father of all Creation,

Thank you for sending your Son to be the ultimate intercessor. His sacrifice means can pray to You and know that You will hear. Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to use this good gift for your glory, and our growth. Allow us, by the power of Jesus Christ, to be instruments of your peace, healing, love, and mercy as we pray for our friends and loved ones, strangers and enemies, individuals and communities, nations and situations.

Comfort us as we pray, allow us to feel your nearness, and the peace that You promised. Forgive us when we pray selfishly and correct us gently as you align our wills to yours. Thank you for kindling this desire to pray for others in our hearts, and in your abundant mercy, fan the flames and make us zealous for your Name. Thank You for the holy obedience You’re nurturing in our hearts, that encourages us to ask questions about You, and to seek your will.

Thank you for sending us your Holy Spirit, so that we may always be in your presence and our prayers can be a never-ending sacred conversation with You.

In Christ’s Name we pray, Amen.

Feel free to share your methods in the comments, or your favorite scriptures regarding prayer.

PS God, please forgive me for teasing Caroline publicly in a post about serious prayer.