Making Time to Intercede
A Way to Organize Prayer Lists. 

 
by Sharon Fleming  Issue #9 November/December 1998 

 

Illustration by Sara Swan
"I don't pray for people by name," Azucena was telling me. "I just pray for ‘all the people in the church,' and that includes their families and unsaved relatives." As she continued her justification for not having specific prayer lists, I sent up an arrow prayer for wisdom to show her the importance of more specific prayers.

Then Azucena moved to a related topic, asking me to pray for the youngest of her children, Carlos. She explained that he's the only one who hasn't come to the Lord. "Please put him on your prayer list, Sharon," she concluded.

Although I'm not sure that Azucena was aware of the contradiction she'd just made, I had to admit that her solution was tempting. When I compiled a list of "Who's Who" in my life—a daunting list of 200 people scattered all over the world—I wasn't sure there was any way I could pray for them all, other than taking a deep breath and saying, "God bless DavidKaraMomDadAuntJaneCarlos . . . "

I've tried many different schedules and organizers, and I've finally come up with a workable system. It allows me to pray specifically for all the people I want to include, without unrealistic expectations of the time I can spend in prayer.

My daily list includes immediate family members, my kid's teachers, best friends, and people with whom I'm currently ministering. Then I divide the rest of the names into the days of the week, like this:

Monday

Extended Family: Aunt Mur and Uncle Andy, Brenda and Tony, Adam and Cameron, Brian and Marty.

Unsaved: Mauricio and Lylvia, Camillia and Andrea.

Church: Carlos and Marta, Jairo and Yolanda.

Elders/Leaders: Gordo and Christine Westwood, John and Chris Hurni, John, Laura, Elizabeth, Anne.

Missionaries: (Mexico) Ron and Dot Harris, Bryan and Joy Thomas, Peter, Allison, Faith.

I divide the rest of the weekdays with the same categories, but I list other names under the categories. Every day I pray for the people on my daily list and on that day's list. It still takes time to think about each one and pray for his or her individual needs, but it is now doable.

This is a simple method that requires only a couple of hours to set up. Once you start to use it, you will probably think of variations that are more helpful to you. Try them out! The goal is to intercede frequently for many, with realistic expectations of how much time you can spend in concentrated prayer.