Improving Your Prayer Life with Technology

One of the great things about the age of technology and smart phones is how it can be used to better your life. Fitness apps, Bible apps, bank apps, grocery list apps – it helps us to save time, money, and keep up with how we are doing physically AND spiritually.

My prayer life is something I work hard to have, and yet I feel like I struggle with it almost every day. I know why! One reason is my own fault with how I’m not disciplining myself. The other is I know the devil wants to keep me from being more like Christ. He wants to be a stumbling block. (Matthew 16:23)

In the past, I created this beautiful and elaborate prayer journal, but it just did not work for me. A few years ago, it came to my mind to search for a prayer app on my phone. I thought surely there was something out there that had already been created to help you pray for things daily and weekly and keep it all organized much like that elaborate paper journal I had created.

I found exactly what I was looking for and have been using it ever since! It’s called PrayerMate (“mate” as in friend, because the creator is from the UK). It’s available for FREE in the Google Play store and the Apple iTunes store. (I did pay a small amount to support their development and to get a different color option.)

Can I say how much I love this app? I have shared it with so many friends over the years! The app actually has everything I wanted and needed in an app plus some extra neat features I wanted to share.

When you download it, it comes set up with a few “lists” but everything is customizable. Here is a glimpse of a few of the seventeen current lists I have:

Within each list you can add “subjects.” Such as in my “Fab Farmer 4,” I have added my husband and two kids. (I am an English nerd who likes alliteration, so please excuse me with my list name. Haha!)

There are only four items or “subjects” in this prayer session as you see above. I want to pray for all four every day, so I have it set to four. If I had a list of say 14 items like I do for my close friends list, then I know there is no way I can sincerely pray for all of them every day. For that list, I have chosen to pray for two subjects (or individual friends) every time I go through my list.

Back to your subjects – if you want to get more detailed, then you can add “notes” which are things you want to remember to pray about for that subject.

Below is a peek of what Elizabeth’s prayer page looks like finished. I delete and add to each person as needed.

As you can see, you can add photos of those you are praying for. I have “stolen” pictures from Facebook in the past. 😉 I think it helps (at least it does for me) to SEE the person when you are praying for them.

Another thing you can change is the scheduling mode. This is how often you want to pray for each subject. So if I want to pray for my individual family members daily, I can. If I want to pray for one person on a list daily but the rest on a different schedule, then I can. My husband and I have committed to pray for our Pastor and his family daily, therefore, I have it set for them to show up on my prayer session daily.

If you do not change the scheduling mode, then it will be on “default” which means if you have 14 items like on my “Friends” list and pray for two subjects every prayer session, then you will go through each subject every seven days.

Regarding scheduling, you can also set up a reminder to alert you when to pray. If you do not get through your whole list of items for that day, then the items you did not pray for will be on your list the following day.

Each day, I start out with a “Praise to the Lord” category where I have added verses that are verses of praise I can pray to the Lord. Many of these are from Psalms.

Then I follow with a “Clean Heart” list where I pray/recite Bible verses on ridding my life of sin. I want to come before the Lord in prayer with a clean heart. Verses such as 1 John 1:9, Psalm 139:23-24, Psalm 66:18, and Psalm 32:5.

Next, I go to my “Being What I Need to Be” where I pray through things concerning my spiritual life, my physical self (any health issues or whatever), my roles as a wife, mother, daughter, and friend, and then the ministries I am involved in at church. For each of those, I can pray for areas I am weak and characteristics I want to strengthen.

Just like if you are trying to get in a routine of reading your Bible, it is better to start slow, say 20 verses or one chapter and not try to read 5-10 chapters at a sitting. I don’t want to find myself rushing to tick off each subject, but instead I want to truly think about what I am praying.

Things to Note:

• I also have a “Temporary Requests” list. This list is for when I have told friends I would pray for them or things I want to pray for a short period. You know when a friend asks for prayer whether at church or on Facebook? This is a great way to REMEMBER to pray for them.
• Two of my favorite prayer lists I pray every day are ones I took from the books, The Power of a Praying Parent and The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian. She has done an amazing job of thinking of many areas of our children’s and husbands’ lives in which we can pray. I typed up the prayers and included the Scripture she included to go along with the prayers. Praying the Word of God is powerful because the Word is powerful!
• Get personal with your prayer life! Ask those you pray for HOW you can pray for them. This is good for two reasons. You can be specific in your prayer for them, and it’s a witness to them (and an encouragement) to know you are taking them and their needs before the Throne of God. 💕

When you start using the app, you will discover more features I am not explaining in this post – things such as downloading prayers, attaching PDFs to subjects if there is something you want to remember while praying (an example is a recent prayer letter from a missionary), import your phone contacts so you do not have to type it all up, font size, backup to Dropbox so you do not lose all the information you have added, etc.

I know that has been a lot of screenshots and a lot of information. However, if you are struggling with your prayer life, consider trying this app to help you. There is nothing wrong with taking modern technology and using it to help you walk closer with the Lord.

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:5

Prayer is one of the great things about our Christian life. Most of us (ME! ME! ME!) need to improve. I have been praying since I was a child, but this has definitely improved my prayer life. I have gone so far to tell people it has “revolutionized my prayer life.”

We have a Heavenly Father who is always ready to talk with us. When you are sitting in that waiting room, on lunch break, in the car, or walking the dog, take that time to pray!

Let me know if you try it out and/or if you have any questions. ❤

(This post is an updated version of a blog post I originally wrote for here.)