7 tools to enhance your prayer life

Dick Eastman, author of The Hour that Changes the World, shares insightfully:

Nothing I can do will please Christ more than my joining with Him in daily prayer. And when I do, something happens in the world that could not happen through any other means.

Here are seven tools that others have found beneficial in bringing consistency to their prayer life:

• Take and 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper, holding it in landscape position, fold it in half once, then again, and then third time. When you unfold the paper you will find creases that comprise 8 identical compartments. Title the first “every day”, then starting with “Sunday”; title the remaining 7 compartments a day of the week. Place the requests you wish to pray for every day in the first box, and divide the rest of your requests among the days of the week.  Folding it back up, use your pocket-sized prayer list to carry with you as you attempt to grow in your prayer life.
• The Pocket Prayer Journal is an APP for your smart phone that allows you to record the request, mark them as answered, not answered, overdue, etc. It also includes helpful Scriptures and short prayers.
• The Hour that Changes the World, Dick Eastman’s brief, but helpful work divides an hour of prayer time into twelve 5-minutes segments – spending a few minutes in each of these areas of prayer naturally stretches your prayer time.
• The 29:59 Plans by Peter M. Lord and Daniel Henderson. This a prayer diary with a structure based upon the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6.
• Drawing Near by Ken Boa and Max Anders guides your prayer time through 8 sections (adoration, forgiveness, renewal, personal needs, prayers for others, affirmation, thanksgiving, and closing prayer). This tool also provides helpful scriptures paraphrased into the second person so that you are praying the Scriptural thoughts directly to the Lord.
• Valley of Vision is a volume of Puritan prayers. An excellent resource when desiring to move your prayer life beyond superficially bringing requests to the Lord.
• Operation World– The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation. This is the best tool available if you wish to learn to pray for the world. Each day you are praying for a specific country of the world. The book provides critical economic, cultural, geographical and spiritual data to inform your prayer time.