Look I get it - Your life gets so hectic and chaotic that you look up and realize your prayers have been super you focused. These 5 tips are a great start if you want to learn to pray for others more.

Learning how to pray for others is an important lesson each believer must learn. We all know that prayer is a powerful tool, but it can be hard to make it a pillar in our lives. I have been on a journey for the last five years to learn how, when, and what to pray. Back in 2016, my marriage was falling apart.

It was in that season that I learned the power of praying for others. At the time, the person was my husband, but the lesson applied to everyone I cared about. I began to see that I was praying for others with me in mind. Or even worse, I wasn’t really praying about the people I cared about at all.

I have some tips that I have picked up over the years that I am proud of and genuinely believe may help you grow in your prayer life and help you to better intercede for those around you.

Set A Daily Timer

Let’s start with a super practical idea. Set a timer. Is there a time in your day where you are often capable of carving out sometime? Maybe it’s in the evening after dinner or maybe after the kids are in bed but before you and your husband watch a show before bed.

Whenever it is, set a timer to remind you to pray for someone who needs it. If you like me hate the sound of a startling alarm set a calendar notification with an alert. It’s a simple beep, and even if you miss it, the next time you open your phone to scroll, you’ll see it and can take a moment to lift up someone else and their needs.

Make A Prayer Schedule

Creating a prayer schedule changed my life. I know that sounds dramatic, and maybe it is, nevertheless, it is true.

When my marriage was falling apart, I started a prayer schedule where I would pray for a different aspect of my husband’s life every day of the week on a rotating schedule. I prayed for our marriage on Thursdays…and that was it. I had to find other aspects of his life that had less to do with me six other days of the week.

What happened was I began to have a new compassion for Mike, and I began to see the burdens he was carrying. Rather than being focused on how he was affecting me, I was able to see past myself to the man I loved, and I saw he was struggling and bogged down in a lot of different ways.

We have a prayer journal with a section to make a schedule that you can get from Amazon. You can grab it here and try this method for yourself. Assign days to people and circumstances that matter to you and then cover them on those days with prayer.

If it’s your spouse you want to pray for, you can grab the very journal that I created and used, and that helped save my marriage here.

The Bible says that we are to love other the way we have been loved. Would you be interested in joining thousands of other woman in our 6-day Scripture writing challenge ALL about how incredibly loved you are by the Father. Discover (or rediscover) how crazy loved you are and watch it change everything. You can join us by clicking here!

Do you know God loves you? Do you really believe that? Do you believe He’s a huge fan of who you are? Do you know the Father cares about ALL the details of your life? Are you convinced that the details of your life, big and small, matter to Him? Joi…

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Wear or Display A Reminder

I was once in a store and saw this beautiful little square box that was cheetah print and had this gold cheetah on the front of it. It reminded me so much of one of my sisters who has some life-threatening struggles that we bought it right away to use as a reminder to pray for her whenever it would catch our attention in our home.

Find something that reminds you of someone, and when it catches your eye, talk a moment to say a prayer for them. It could be jewelry or wall art or a post-it on your mirror with their name on it. When you see it, say a prayer for them.

Give Yourself Grace

Be kind to you. Even in sharing that story about my sister’s cheetah box, I realize that in all of our moving in the last couple of years, I have no idea where it is. It is easy to beat ourselves up when we are in seasons of babies and hecticness or when we have our own issues and burdens.

It is easy to begin to focus on our own lives, problems, and sufferings and forget to lift others and their circumstances up in prayer. Don’t condemn yourself. Show yourself grace and remind yourself that praying for others and lifting them and their situations up will ultimately lift you up as well!

As you see God working in their lives, it will encourage you too!

Find A Prayer/Accountability Partner

Is there another person who also is moved or burdened about this situation? Is there someone else who loves and cares for this person or group of people? Ask them if they would like to get together to pray about it! IT could be once a week in person, or you could make it a time each day that you guys will both be praying or that you could call each other and pray together.

If that sound like too big a commitment set a timeline. Say for the next week, let’s call each other every morning at eight and pray through this situation.

As someone who has had the privilege of watching prayer transform relationships and circumstances on more than one occasion, I encourage you to practice. Prayer is a conversation with a Father who adores us, but it is also a discipline as good communication is in any relationship. It takes practice and intentionality.

So keep trying, my friend.