Prayer Cards and a Book for YOU

A new giveaway! Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day for the other giveaway. With my Bible study at church, we read through the book A Praying Life

by Paul E. Miller. Honestly, I was not thrilled about reading this book. I guess I just thought it would say the things that I had already heard or read that just didn't work for me. I WAS WRONG!

This book was so real and refreshing. I found that it spoke to my heart about prayer. It was an easy read on a difficult subject.

It also gave me a great idea for using prayer cards that is actually working for me. Prayer lists and journaling had not been too effective for me.

I have permission from NavPress to share Paul E. Miller's guidelines for creating prayer cards.

1. Use short phrases to create a snapshot of a person's life to help the cards work for you.
2. When praying for the person, pick out one or two key areas and pray for them. Miller doesn't linger over a card for more than a few seconds.
3. Use Scripture to express your desire for the person or a situation.
4. The card does not change much. Miller may add a new line once a year or so for something that is an ongoing area of the person's life that needs prayer.
5. Miller does not write down answers since they are obvious to him.
6. Miller sometimes dates a prayer request by putting the month and year.

The prayer card helps me to focus on one person at a time. As you can see in the picture above, I "bold-faced" some key words by going over my handwriting twice. You can see many of the verses I chose to use for us. I spent a lot of time in the Bible looking up verses on different subjects deciding how I really wanted to pray for us. Now these cards are actually helping me to memorize more Scripture...an added bonus.

Above are my immediate family members' cards. In chapter 27, where Miller discusses the prayer cards, he also explains about cards for those suffering, non-Christians, and friends.

I keep my prayer cards above the kitchen sink. It works for me, though I don't change the cards with wet hands. My cards are a bit larger than the suggested 3x5, but they work for me for now.

This blog post shares enough to get you started, but if you are interested in reading A Praying Life, NavPress has agreed to give a copy to one of our readers!

For a chance to win A Praying Life, leave a comment below telling me why you would like it. Make sure I have a way to contact you!

For a bonus entry, leave an additional comment if you follow me through Google Friends Connect. (If not, just click the button to follow in the sidebar!) Giveaway ends Sunday, April 11th, at 9pm. Winner will be chosen by random.org.

A Praying Life, Paul E. Miller, copyright 2009. Used by permission of NavPress, all rights reserved. www.navpress.com This post is just about a book that I like and a system that works for me. I was not provided the book for review.