Make a Big Bold Prayer List for the Coming Year

Instead of making New Year’s resolutions, write down a New Year’s prayer list.  It is more advantageous, and it keeps our plans and goals for the coming year where they should be—in submission to the will of God. Start life change with prayer.  Bathe life-change in prayer.  Celebrate life-change with rejoicing in prayer.

Let’s consider what a New Year’s prayer list might look like.

Pray for yourself. 

Psalm 25:4-5 says, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”

What do I know is God’s will for me in the coming year?  Consistent devotional and prayer time?  Increased Spirit empowered self-discipline?  Better stewardship of my finances, time, relationships, opportunities?  Do I even know.  My first prayer request is to ask Him to show me what I should pray for myself in the coming year.  It should be my lead request every day.

Pray for your spiritual and emotional well-being.  A quiet heart, peace, humility, patience, as quiet spirit, joy—all these are things God has said He wants me to have. Pray for your physical health. This is not just a request for divine intervention against the ravages of disease or age, but also for the will to be a good steward of the body God has given you. Your personal finances require the same prayer pattern.

Then there is personal ministry.  Pray for opportunities to share Christ daily.  Pray for the opportunity to be an encouragement to others in their growth in Christ.

Prayer for family. 

Paul considered Timothy his son, maybe not in blood but in the faith.

This is what he said in the opening words of the Second Letter to Timothy,

To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day,

If you pray, sincerely, for your husband or wife on a regular basis, your love for your spouse will deepen.  You will be less inclined to be critical or neglectful, and the quality will deepen.  And God answers the godly prayers of His people.

We tend to complain, manipulate, and seek to control our family members much more often than we sincerely pray for them.  Prayer is more effective than any of those things.  This would include prayers for spouses, children, parents and even extended family.

What great big things do you desire for your family in the coming year?  Does God also desire these things?  Would you go to God regularly to ask Him to do it?

Prayers for friends and other loved ones. 

Like your family, a prayer list should extend to friends and other loved ones. You could ask God to save them, grow them, bless them, help them, heal them and so much more.

Pray for your church. 

Do you pray for your church regularly–asking God to send a spiritual revival, a harvest of souls, effective discipleship, vibrant worship, and doctrinal faithfulness?

All these are important, and should be part of your prayer focus, but when Jesus prayed for the church, He prayed for something that we often neglect to even consider.

John 17:21-23 is a prayer that we should all repeat regarding our local congregations.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

It’s a prayer for unity, but not just any kind of unity.  Churches can be unified in the wrong things.  It is a prayer for unity in Christ.  Such unity would be a unity in obedience to Christ, in the righteousness of Christ, and in the love of Christ.  That kind of unity will be an irresistible testimony to the world and will draw souls.

Pray also for those that rule over you.

According to 1 Timothy 2:1-2 this would not only include pastors and spiritual leaders, but also governmental and civic leaders who have the capacity to cause us harm.  Pray that you will be able to live out your faith in a quiet and peaceable way.

Write it down.

Don’t enter this year of prayer haphazardly. Write down your requests.  Be organized about it.  Put them in a place where you will see them daily—in your Bible, on your desk, taped to the bathroom mirror, in your car.  Take this list seriously and commit to a year of prayer.

Share it with spiritual companions.

This especially includes the personal requests about your own life.  You need a small group of friends that share your deepest requests and provide accountability in your Christian life.

When Daniel found out that Nebuchadnezzar was going to kill all the wisemen of Babylon, he shared the burden with the three men who were his spiritual companions.

 So, Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, ¹⁸ that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. (Daniel 2:16-18)

This is nothing new, in Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress, Christian needed Faithful on the journey.

Set aside the resolutions and pray.

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For the audio version of this post: Make a Big Bold Prayer List for the Coming Year