Keeping Track of Prayers Asked and Answered

Isn't it amazing how the Internet has collapsed distance and time?  It's coming has surely ushered a quantum leap towards time travel.  A friend of mine and I just finished a Bible study by Max Lucado.  We have discussed things in the study even between out Texas and Virginia residences.

Some final enlightenments were several ideas about how to keep track of our prayers asked and answered.  They were so simple and I think useful that I just had to share them with you.

The suggestions include keeping measurable records of things for which we pray, identifying Scripture(s) references that remind us of God's assurance to provide for our needs, and logging concrete ways in which God's answered prayers are manifesting themselves.

For starters, Max Lucado provided us with some Bible verses that assure us of God's provisions and actions in our lives.  To name but a few, the verses include:

• Ge. 50:20,
• Psalms 139, 130:5-7, 38:8, & 23:4,
• Rom. 8:34,
• 2Cor. 4:17,
• Phil. 1:6,
• James 1:2-4 & 12,
• 1Pe. 1:6.

Then, Max instructed us to state our challenges as prayers and that we consider how to make our statement a concrete reminder of God’s faithfulness to you.

Several ways to do that include:

• Share it with two or three friends or ask them to email or text it to you throughout the week.
• Memorize the Scripture your statement is based on, or post it where you will see it daily.
• Print your statement on a small card.
• Attach the card to a potted plant as a visual reminder that your faith is growing even in this challenge for which you pray.

I can just envision my card rising higher and higher on that tomato plant to which I just attached it.  That is pretty cool!

My Bible study partner set a goal to record every prayer in a journal and to post it to this blog.  Then, every time one of the prayers were answered,she would make a little notch on a twig, which she would post somewhere she could see it.  The notches served to remind her how the Lord was working to answer her prayers.  Here is a copy of the twigs she gathered to get started.

Prayer Twigs

Max then suggested that a three column chart be made to help catalog prayers, relate the prayer request to Scripture and log when progress was being made on the prayer.  Click on the following link to download a blank copy of the chart if you want to use is suggestion (I have included the Scripture for assistance; I hope it is readable even though it is on a very small font.)

You'll Get Through This Prayer Chart

WOW!  Finally a way to be reminded every day of God's presence and the wonderful specific provisions and promises He fulfills for which we can give Him thanks!

Set aside time for quiet prayer. Express your gratitude to God for all the ways He has demonstrated His care for you. Entrust your ongoing questions and struggles to Him, and ask Him what you might need right now. Allow a few moments of quiet, inviting God to speak His words of love to you in the silence. Close your time by praising Him for Who He is and for His sovereignty in your life.
Let us hear from you.  Share your prayer request with those following this blog by either providing detail by filling out a comment on this blog or sending your prayer details to epwarrior@aol.com in an email for posting.
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