Welcome back! We are at the end of our class on how to organize your prayer life--yet in reality we are only at the very beginning. What you "get" out of your Prayer Binder is going to depend upon what you "put" into it and the time you spend with your Creator. Make your Prayer Binder work for YOU. If you do not have an area in your life that someone else does, don't put that as a topic in your binder. Think about your own life, and the people God has put into it. Personalize your binder to fit YOUR life! After you have worked with your binder for a couple weeks, change anything that is not working for you. Rearrange your topics, change your categories, do whatever you need to in order to make it work for you.
Suggestions for personalizing your binder:
~Make your binder attractive, so it will be something that you will love to pick up and spend time with. Give it a pretty cover--or if you are into photography, what about taking a special picture of something that appeals to you and printing that out for your cover!
~Include pictures of people that you are praying for. Those family pictures that often come with Christmas cards can be a good source of photos. :)
~If you are praying for little ones, trace around their precious little hands to look at as you place them in the secure hands of our Savior!
~Keep a couple note cards tucked inside your Prayer Binder so you can write out a quick note of encouragement for a person you have prayed for.
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I would like to share with you a longer quote this time. In our church class I printed this out and passed it to each class member so they could keep it in their Prayer Binder and refer to it from time to time. I found this to be a VERY good read--it goes along so very perfectly for when I get busy and I don't have enough time to pray!
Important Things Take Time
"It's correct to say that anything that is truly important to you will require your time and attention. And praying for your spouse and children is definitely a top priority. Think about it: Your children are your flesh and blood. They are closer to you than anyone else, other than your spouse. That means you should be willing to give up some of the time you spend on secondary things so you have more time for the primary thing--praying for your marriage partner and your children.
Prayer requires time. And if your immediate response is that you're too busy to pray, then you need to somehow, somewhere, free up some time to carry out this priority. The Bible refers to this trade-off of lesser things for the greater things as 'redeeming the time' (Ephesians 5:16). When it comes to you and your children, God has given you an allotted "season" of time with your children under your roof. It will truly fly by! That's why you must make the most of your time with them.
Here's a quick exercise you can go through almost every day: Think about how much time you spend each day watching the news, or sports, or a favorite program or two, or even The Weather Channel. Or consider the amount of time you put into exercising, surfing the Internet, going on Facebook, or emailing friends and associates and taking care of your personal business. When you add up all this daily expenditure of your minutes and hours, you'll realize that you definitely have time for prayer--especially prayer for each family member's life and soul."
By Jim George
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Wasn't that a good and sober reminder? Definitely something to spend some time seriously thinking about. . .
And just a few more closing thoughts for you as you set off on your own Prayer Journal experience. Here are two more quotes that I have collected. They are very precious to me, as they speak of how much Jesus loves me!
"As an earthly shepherd knows his sheep, so does the divine Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the world. 'Ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.' Jesus says, 'I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.' 'I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.' Ezek. 34:31; Isaiah 43:1; 49:16
Jesus knows us individually, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows us all by name. He knows the very house in which we live, the name of each occupant. He has at ties given directions to His servants to go to a certain street in a certain city, to such a house, to find one of His sheep."
Desire of Ages p. 479 Ellen G. White
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And my last one:
"Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he were the only one for whom the Saviour died. The distress of every one touches His heart. The cry for aid reaches His ear.
Desire of Ages p. 480 Ellen G. White
Thank you for joining me on this series! I pray that it has been a blessing to you, as learning this method has been for me!
Please share in the comments things you have found or collected or discovered that has blessed you in this method of organizing your prayer life! :)
~Susan
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