Life Goals in Prayer Episode #46
Do you have life goals in prayer? Are you a planner? Do you keep lists so you can check off your accomplishments? Do you make plans or set goals each day? These are all wonderful things, but do you have a goal for your prayer life? In this podcast, we will discuss setting goals daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly for your prayer life and ways to improve each day.
Thanks to our sponsor the Well Planned Gal special planners – and the Prayer Planner is brand new! Visit this website for more information.
Life Goals In Prayer
Planning your day or your goals for work is wonderful but it is also important to plan time for prayer. In these podcasts, the focus has always been time for uninterrupted prayer. When life gets busy it seems that prayer is the first thing to go.
It starts slowly. First, we begin strong. We set aside time to pray each day, we make that prayer time a priority and we look forward to it and then we realize the fruits and blessings that come from our prayer time. Slowly we find we are busier than we expected to be, our well planned day starts taking a downward turn and we learn to make our prayer time shorter, or rush through our prayers, or divide our prayer time in half just to fit it into our already busy and overflowing schedule. Soon we find that prayer time does not take place every day. Instead of moving forward two steps we move backward three…in our prayer time.
Goal setting gives us a target to reach. It encourages us. It gives us something to shoot for and a sense of accomplishment when we do. The goal of making prayer a priority in our lives is one example of a goal
Making prayer a priority is easier said than done. It isn’t just our daily schedule that is the issue it is the enemy that robs our peace or the seemingly endless distractions that happen during our prayer time. Whether the phone rings, someone comes to the door, an unplanned emergency or the kids needing your time. Either way, your prayer time begins to shrink.
Habits are formed through repetition and one of the best bits of advice that I can give you is to make your prayer time a habit. Planning your prayer time similar to planning life goals is important. No one goes to a job without knowing what they are expected to accomplish each day and getting the work done. If we are not good at our jobs we will soon find ourselves without work.
The same without your goals for your prayer time. Let’s take a look at some goals you can implement for your prayer time. Use this as a starting place for setting up your own personalized goals.
Life Goals In Prayer
- A specific time to pray each day.
- A specific place to pray and read the Bible or a spiritual book
- A specific amount of time you will listen for God’s small still voice. If you don’t hear anything don’t worry! Sometimes it is a thought or an idea that comes from the Lord.
- Setting up goals for specific activities, for example memorizing Scripture, or reading the book of Proverbs in a month, etc. What would you like to accomplish? When you figure this out, you can set aside time each day to get it done.
- Goals for learning. What are you learning? Write down your accomplishments and rejoice! You are moving toward growing stronger in your faith!
Recently I had the opportunity to review the Prayer Journal by the Well Planned Gal, Rebecca Farris. Rebecca by her own admission is a planner and this journal is no different. It maps out an easy way to keep prayer the center of your day. This planner is perfect to schedule your life goals in prayer!
We will discuss five points in this planner:
- The planner becomes a keepsake: I love this! I once had a planner that I could look back and see all the answered prayer! This planner allows you to add memories and photos of your family throughout the year. No worries about a crashing computer and lost pictures!
- Year at a glance: Upcoming events such as the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, vacations – it is so nice to plan ahead.
- Important Information: Important emails or phone numbers, emergency contacts as well as some favorite websites.
- Household, Home Management, Chore charts and Family Routine: Have you ever had a sick day, could someone come in and run your home for you? This planner could be helpful as well as a way to teach your children to handle some of these to-dos! These are double-sided and I love that you can tear the sheets out to be laminated and placed on a bulletin board or on the wall. You can use dry erase markers or use them to teach the children.
- Prayer Charts: These are double-sided as well. You can place these in a convenient place to access, or in your Bible.
Rebecca is the queen of organization! Her title is the “Well Planned Gal” – she has great advice like the 15-minute purge. I’ve been doing an abbreviated version of this for years. Mine is five minutes! Whatever I can clean up in five minutes while on the phone, or before I leave the house. These timely and concentrated times can help you feel a sense of accomplishment. In her planner, she suggests: making the beds, tidying the bedrooms, starting laundry, switching it out, folding, putting it away, floors, tiding the kitchen in the morning, afternoon, night time, taking out the trash, prepping dinner, etc. So much more!
Praying the scriptures, as well as the virtues, are listed with scripture references. What’s nice is a lesson in journaling basics, or Journaling 101. This is well worth the price of this journal!
You can write down your Scripture study verses for the week, which is accompanied by a “Going Deeper” page.
One thing I do love is the self-care ideas page. For many years I didn’t think I needed to take care of myself and when I got sick complained that there was not “time” to get sick! This could be avoided if I had put myself on the same level as my kids! I require them to eat right, get their rest –yet didn’t expect the same for myself.
This journal is chock full of tidbits and surprises like the page on helping your children hear from God – a subject near and dear to my heart as I authored the book, “A Few Minutes with God,” specifically for that purpose to help my children learn to spend time in a relationship with the Lord.
Let’s Pray:
Dear Lord, please encourage each of us to free our calendars and make time with you a priority in our life. Thank you, Jesus, for all that you have done for us, I praise you and I thank you for looking kindly upon me! Continue to bless us as we seek a closer relationship with you. Thank you for the ability to plan to spend time with you – for giving us the ability to do this and for helping us to teach our children, especially by example to put you first. I praise you and I thank you for all you have done in my life. I pray specifically for those in need, especially for….
Thank you, Lord for answered prayers and for those we are still waiting to have answered. I pray this in Your precious Name, Amen.
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