“I wish I’d prayed more.” - Brian Howard
Those were the concluding words to a recent interview with a prominent pastor. The reporter had asked him if he wished he would have done anything differently in his ministry. This is a man who has many accolades in the world of Christian Ministry and an influential church. Some may disagree with his methodology or theology at times, but most of us would expect that the Lord will welcome him to glory one day with a “Well done, good and faithful servant.” For all that this pastor has accomplished, he doesn't wish he’d done more, but that he’d prayed more.
His words stuck with me these past few weeks. I can always use improvements in my prayer life. Some seasons I need more focus. In others I need more frequency. At other times I may look toward fruitfulness or faithfulness: “Did I really pray about this issue from all angles?” There can also be a lingering guilt about how much or how long to pray. 18th Century Missionary David Brainerd would pray for hours at a time, falling asleep in some woodland nook only to wake up and keep at it. Am I a bad pastor for not following suit?
For me, the most helpful framework for prayer is a different daily emphasis that a sister in Christ shared with me years ago. She received it as part of a women’s ministry called Joy of Abiding. I’ve adapted it as follows:
Sunday: The Church
Monday: Friends, Prodigals, and Personal Ministry
Tuesday: The Sick, Marriages, Expectant Mothers
Wednesday: Educators, Schools, School Boards
Thursday: Other Countries, Other Ministries, Missionaries
Friday: Neighbors, Extended Family
Saturday: Government, City, State, Nation
Everyday: Urgent requests, Immediate Family, Self.
Broken out over seven days, I find that I can be more consistent in praying for needs that aren’t always at the front of my attention: Lt. Governors, School Boards across town, Countries I’ll never visit. On Thursday, February 24, 2022, I woke up to the news of Russia and Ukraine. By God’s providence, I’d already been praying for both of them each Thursday morning. I have no solution to their plight, but I’m assured each week that I give it to the Lord.
The most recent change I made was to convert all of this into an app on my phone. It’s called “Prayer Notes,” and it’s available from a company called Chuchutrain. This way, whether I have my printed prayer guide with me or not, I can be sure to cover everything for a given day. I can get a little obsessive about it, but I guess that’s a good thing.
The end result of all of this is a sense of devotional-delightfulness. There is a unique pleasure in praying not just for the prominent things in our lives, but also the obscure. There’s a shift that occurs when we pray for someone that we’ll never meet, a politician we can’t stand, or a situation we flippantly said we’d pray for but could be prone to forget.
Most weeks, I too can echo those words, “I wish I’d prayed more.” But when I stay disciplined over the course of seven days, I can feel that humble assuredness that only comes when I’ve given it all to the Lord who is “my strength and my song” (Isaiah 12:2)
“Lord, let us be praying pastors: for one another, for issues seen and unseen, and for each new morning that you give us until you call us home. In Jesus’ name, Amen”