For a long time I struggled with prayer. I read a lot of books and thought a lot about it, but spent little time actually doing it. I have tons of journals from my single years full of prayers I’d written, but as life got busier, I found my prayers slowing down. I knew something needed to change. Writing out my prayers longform in a blank notebook was just not something I had time for regularly anymore. But I knew I needed something to help keep me focused, or all those little “I’ll pray for you”s throughout the day would slip through the cracks.

I tried some other prompted prayer journals, a “war binder,” an app, but nothing seemed to be exactly what I needed. And I still felt overwhelmed by the daunting task of all the things I felt like I needed to pray for.

Then a year or so ago, I found a little glimmer of freedom. In the middle of all that I was reading, someone, somewhere, talked about having a prayer schedule where there were a few topics to pray for every day, but everything else was on a rotation. I sat with that idea for a while. Was that really okay? Did I not have to pray for every single thing on my list every single day? Where did that expectation come from anyways.

The more I thought about this idea, the more peace I felt. So I began making a list of every “topic” I wanted to pray for during my week. This included myself, my immediate and extended family, my friends, my church, the unsaved, missions, our country, and the world. Then I listed the days of the week. I decided I was going to pray for myself, my husband, and my kids every day, and assign everything else to one day of the week. For each topic, I listed all the things I wanted to pray for so I would have plenty to choose from on that day of prayer.

And the idea for my prayer journal was born. I gave myself 6 months worth of pages with each of these topic headings, and added in some pages for praise, Scripture memory, confession, gratitude, answered prayers, and a blank “be still” page as a reminder that prayer is also listening.

Then anytime someone gave me a prayer request, or I promised to pray for something, I would add it to that page. Of course, for any immediate needs I would pray, even if it wasn’t the “scheduled” prayer day for that topic. But this has helped me not feel overwhelmed by all the things that need praying for, and has allowed me to go deeper in my prayers, rather than feeling like I’m simply rattling off a list.

In fact, I have been setting a timer for praise, confession, and listening, and I don’t make a single request until that timer goes off. I’ve also designated my Sabbath as a day to not ask God for anything (again, except in the case of emergencies!), but simply to praise, worship, thank, and enjoy him.

For myself and my immediate family, I wrote a list of characteristics I want to be true of us, and I use that in my prayers. Of course, I still pray for things like heath as we head back to school, or a specific situation that may be causing my husband or I stress. But I decided I wanted to spend more time praying for us to be the people God wants us to be so we can do the work He has called us to do. The lists include things like the fruit of the Spirit (especially patience!), but also things like disciplined, thoughtful, encourager, committed, humble, and worshipful.

Most mornings, when I have what I call my “focused prayer time,” I’ll glace over the list, thinking about our days, and at least one word will jump out as something we’ll especially need that day, so that’s where I start, just thinking through and praying through the day ahead.

I always close my prayer time with gratitude, because that’s how I want to walk away from my time with God each morning. I want to carry that attitude of gratitude throughout my day.

If you’ve been struggling to get into a good prayer rhythm, I pray this strategy (and my prayer journal releasing at the end of the month!) helps you. If you’re interested in the method I used for coming up with the list of characteristics I pray for myself and my immediate family, download the worksheet below and (prayerfully!) fill it out.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. Do you have any prayer tips to share? Leave a comment or find me on social media, and let’s all grow together.