A Sample Prayer Plan

For my class, the Biblical Exposition of Prayer, our final project was to prepare a three-part expositional series on prayer, with the goal of drawing our hearers into a vibrant, thriving prayer life. For that project, I chose Psalm 50, Hebrews 4:14-16, and Matthew 6:5-13. My outline was sort of: (1) Prayer results in God's glory (Ps 50:15); (2) Prayer results in our benefit (Heb 4:16), and (3) How to pray (Mt 6:5-13). (I may post pieces from those lessons in the coming weeks.)

At the end of that project -- as well as at the end of a semester of intentional personal prayer -- I drafted a sample prayer plan that I thought might help give some structure to people who want to pray but don't because they don't have a good plan to pray. John Piper, in Desiring God, makes that very point: a main hindrance to prayer is our lack of planning. He tells us, "If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don't just get up one summer morning and say, 'Hey, let's go today!' You won't have anything ready. You won't know where to go. Nothing has been planned."

And so to that end, I offer the following, not as something to be rigidly followed, but as a suggestion to help get you into -- or back into -- a thriving, regular, consistent time of worship of and communion with God in prayer.


Wake up: 5:30 am
Time: Daily, 6:00 am to 7:00 am
Place: Kitchen Table

6:00-6:05 - Drawing Near & Confession

• Come before your Father in the name of Jesus Christ, on the basis of the work He's done in the Gospel.
  
• Acknowledge your dependence upon the Holy Spirit even in your prayers (Rom 8:26-27). Ask for His help in the coming hour.
  
• Pray that the Father would receive this time as worship from a heart gladdened by His glorious grace.
  
• Confess your sin in light of God's holiness. Ask for forgiveness on the basis of Christ's shed blood on the Cross.
  

6:05-6:10 - Praise & Thanksgiving

Spend time simply delighting in all that God is for you in Christ. Meditate on the beauty of His manifold perfections and His wondrous deeds throughout the ages. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name (Ps 96:7-9), and honor Him as God by giving thanks to Him (Rom 1:21) for all His good and perfect gifts (Jas 1:17).

6:10-6:20 - God-Centered Petitions

• Pray for God's name to be glorified above all things by all peoples.
• Pray for His kingdom to increase through the ministry of the Church.
  
• Pray for His kingdom to come in its fullness. That is, pray for His second coming and the establishment of His consummated reign upon the earth.
  
• Pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven; namely, without hesitation and full of joyful zeal.

6:20-6:30 - Personal Petitions

• Pray for growth in grace and godliness. Be specific.
  
• Battle in prayer against specific sins. Engage in the work of mortification (Rom 8:12-13).
• Pray for opportunities of personal ministry, that your light would shine before men to the glory of your Father (Mt 5:16).
  
• Pray for God to provide (and to continue to provide) for your daily necessities: for food, shelter, employment, etc.
  
• Pray for freedom from temptation, and, when temptation comes, strength to endure it without falling.
• Pray for the strength to persevere and endure in trials.

6:30-6:40 - Intercessory Prayer

During this time, pray for the requests of particular circles of friends and family. This may involve keeping a prayer list and referring to it as you're praying. Pray for different circles on different days. For example on a 5-day cycle:

• On Mondays, pray for particular requests from your immediate and extended family.
• On Tuesdays, pray for the requests of those in your small group Bible study.
• On Wednesdays, pray for your pastors and elders, as well as the missionaries your church supports. (You might pick a different missionary family or two each week and cycle through.) Pray also for pastors, elders, and missionaries you know outside of your own church.
• On Thursdays, pray for the requests of those whom you interact with at your job. What a great way to both minister and witness to those at your job!
• On Fridays, pray for other friends outside of the aforementioned circles, as well as specifically for the salvation of unbelievers you know.

6:40-6:55 - Meditation

Choose a passage of Scripture to meditate on and pray through. This should be regular. That is, don't just pick a random passage every day. You might choose to meditate on the main text and the supplemental texts of your pastor's sermon from the previous Sunday. That would be a great way to be an expositional listener. You might also do a Psalm per day. You could also pick 8 verses of Psalm 119 per day, as that's broken up very nicely. For example,

• Monday - Psalm 119:1-8
• Tuesday - Psalm 119:9-16
• Wednesday - Psalm 119:17-24
• Thursday - Psalm 119:25-32
• Friday - Psalm 119:33-40

Really pray these texts into your soul. This is not reading merely for exposure or content. This is reading to see and know and worship God. This should be different than your daily Bible reading, and should be a small enough passage that you can pray through it in 15 minutes.

6:55-7:00 - Summarize

• Thank God for the time spent with Him and for His gracious revelation of Himself in His Word.
• Express your trust in Him to grant the things you've prayed for according to His sovereign, wise, and good will, and according to glory of His name.
• Pray again for strength and grace to glorify Him and serve people in His name throughout your day.

One thing I have asked from Yahweh, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of Yahweh
And to meditate in His temple.
- Psalm 27:4 -

Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
- John 14:13 -

Ask and you will receive,
so that your joy may be made full.
- John 16:24 -