Daily Prayer Guide: How to Pray with Focus

One of the best ways to pray is to base your praying directly on the content of the Bible, the Word of God. The following prayer guide has enriched the lives of many believers in their daily prayer life. Try it for one month to see how much difference it makes in your daily prayer time. If it proves helpful to you, share it with someone else.

For Your Everyday Prayer Time

1.  Acknowledge God as your heavenly Father, and thank Him for the personal relationship between you and God through Jesus Christ.  See John 1:12; Mat. 6:9; 1 John 3:1 

2.  Praise & worship God for who He is and for what He has done. Give thanks.  See Psalm 34:1; 46:10; 95:1-7; 103:1-5; 113:1-5 

3.  Choose one of God’s names, attributes, or characteristics, and thank Him for being that to you.  See Exodus 3:13-14; Gen. 22:14; 15:3,26; 17:15; Jer. 23:6; Ezek. 48:35; Mat. 6:9

4.  Confess your sins and turn from them, asking God to help you live a holy life.  See Psalm 32:1-5; 66:18; 2 Chron. 7:14; Isaiah 59:1-2; Mat. 6:14-15; 1 John 1:8-10 

5.  Present your body to the Lord, asking that every use of your body will glorify Him.  See Rom. 12:1; 1 Cor. 6:19-20

6.  Present your mouth or tongue to the Lord, asking that you only speak wholesome words. Ex. 20:16; Prov. 18:21; Mat. 5:33-37; 12:34-37; Col. 4:6; James 3:1-12

7. Ask God to purify your heart, so that a clean heart becomes the source of a godly and gracious tongue. Deut. 10:16; 30:6; 1 Sam. 16:7; Psalm 19:14; 24:3-4; 51:10; Jer. 17:9-10; Ezek. 11:19-20; Mat. 5:8; 15:8,18-20

8.  Pray for God’s will to be done in your life.  See Mat. 26:39,42,44; Rom. 12:2; 1 Thess. 4:3-8; 5:16-18; 1 John 5:14-15 

9.  Present your day to the Lord, and ask Him to help plan the day.  See Psalm 37:5; Prov. 3:5-6; 16:9; James 4:13-15

10. Spend at least five minutes praying for God's influence in these five major areas of your society: (a) The Family; (b) The Government (politicians, military, law enforcement); (c) Education (schools, colleges, universities); (d) The News Media, Sports & Entertainment; (e) The Church, Ministry Groups, & Charitable Organizations.

11. Pray for current requests, needs and situations that you know of. Perhaps someone asked you to pray about a need. Check the Prayer List of your church or small group.

12. Wait on the Lord in an attitude and atmosphere of worship. Sing unto Him, be quiet and/or meditate on His name, character and deeds. Remember that your time with God is not complete until you hear from Him.

Could you also be interested in The 21-Day Prayer Guide?

¹ Footnote: Daily prayer items in the "Everyday Prayer" section, numbers 1-10, are adopted from The Power of Praying Together by Stormie Omartian with Jack Hayford, pages 56–64.