Using Visual Prayer Circles (Becoming a Prayer Warrior Series)


This is week 2 of the Faithful Prayer challenge, based on Becoming a Prayer Warrior! Feel free to leave comments here or on my Facebook page with your thoughts on the post or this week’s chapters. Look at the Prayer page for updates throughout the five weeks of the study. I hope you are blessed by it!

—————————————

The very first day in week two of Susan Evans’ Becoming a Prayer Warrior ebook, I learned that she keeps track of 100+ prayer requests each day without writing them down. Yup. No prayer journal. No list. She describes what she calls visual prayer circles, walking through different groups of people in her mind and praying for them as God leads. 

Of course, the OCD in me panicked a little and I skimmed through the rest of the book really quick… you know, to check for that “haha just kidding, here’s my prayer journal” chapter. 🙂 No dice. 

One of Susan’s reasons for not writing keeping a journal is because most of the prayers are for character, sanctification, and the like. Most often we will not see immediate results to these kinds of prayers. We’re praying the long-haul prayers, and we don’t want to get discouraged by the blank box in the “answered” column. I get that. I was intrigued enough to try out visual prayer circles for myself, and the results were interesting. 

This past week I have been on a prayer walk with God through circles of people and prayer requests. I am not to the point where I put in a solid, focused hour for prayer, so my circles were spread out over the week. It was really amazing. God formed groups of people in my mind by request type, relation to me, urgency, etc. He showed me connections and ways to pray for them that I would not have seen otherwise. 

However, I couldn’t help myself and had to write stuff down. I made a little mind map of the circles I had been praying for and some I wanted to keep in mind. This has helped me to get into a more regular visual groove and pray through them without referring to my paper. Here is my mind map without the people filled in yet. 



I also plan on continuing to write down the ways God has answered prayers and keep a little note on my phone of specific prayer requests that I don’t want to forget over time. I think this will actually work much better than the detailed (or even not so detailed) prayer lists and journals I’ve tried to keep before. I have good intentions, but it just doesn’t last. 

What do you think? Are visual prayer circles something you might want to try for yourself? 

—————————————


To start your own prayer journey, go to Becoming a Prayer Warrior on Facebook!  If you are following along with the study, I welcome your thoughts on the chapters here or on the Proverbial Homemaker Facebook page!


Linking up with these great blogs.

If you would like to have Proverbial Homemaker delivered to your inbox, click here: Subscribe to Proverbial Homemaker. Or join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    Hi Tauna,
    This book is so helpful to me! The story is so personal, interesting and just a joy to read so that alone is worth something. Then to have instructions on top of it is a true gift. I have been blessed by this book already and excited to work thru it. Thank you for introducing it to us and for inviting us to work through it with you. Thanks so much to Susan for creating the book and making it available for free.
    I was skeptical when I read the story last week about the time Susan had stopped praying for her friend and how the friend could felt that. It seems Someone knew my doubts so He showed me within the last week what happens when a person stops praying for you. To say the least, that feeling was not cool.
    This week, I am really intrigued about the visual prayer circles. I have had an alarm set to remind me to pray every night, but with my busy schedule it is often ignored. Now that I have something to visualize, I can pray throughout the day instead of trying to make it fit somewhere specific.
    Thank you both again for this blessing!
    ~Angie Jungling

    1. Tauna M

      I’m so glad to hear that Angie! I, too, have been skeptical of some of the things she’s said about her prayer life, but intrigued! Then God just shows me what is true in it and blows me away. I’ll be praying for your journey in this!

    2. Susan Evans

      Angie, I’m glad you’ve found my experiences helpful. God has forged my deep prayer life through the years, and it’s so worth it to connect to God! Prayer is so much more powerful than people realize, and God longs for us to spend more time with Him.

      Would it be okay for me to use your quote (above) as a testimonial for the prayer book? I’m trying to get the book published in physical form, and I need more testimonials.

    3. Anonymous

      Cool! Ya that’s perfectly fine. There is a typo, tho, so I would appreciate a correction if that is possible. The line is “friend could felt that” but should be “friend could feel that”.
      ~AJ

    4. Susan Evans

      Great! Thanks! I’ll make the correction. 🙂

    5. Susan Evans

      Oh, I almost forgot, it would help if I had a heat shot of you. You can send it to [email protected]. I’m starting to set up a testimonials page for the prayer book at susanevans.org/?article=927. If you don’t want a picture, that’s fine, too, but people trust the testimonials of people who look real.

  2. Kristi

    Wow, that looks like a really cool idea! I use circles, but in a different way, more like rings leading out from me, to remind me to pray for each person by their sphere in my life. 🙂

    1. Tauna M

      That makes a lot of sense, Kristi! I suppose there are different ways to organize the prayer requests in our life. It’s definitely a new concept for me but it’s working well!

  3. Tina Smith

    I’ve never heard of this. What an interesting concept. I may just try to work this into my morning studies. Currently, I read a few different selections each morning, and then I end it by journaling. This could help take things to a whole new level. It would even be fun to do with kids. Love it!

  4. Manic Mom

    Love Love!!!

  5. Lexi Henegar

    I love this idea! I don’t like keeping a giant running list of prayer requests and people to pray for because I feel overwhelmed. This idea sounds perfect! I’m going to try it!

  6. Amy B.

    An excellent way to visualize, especially for those who still need some structure to their prayer list. I tend to work in groups, starting with moderate size (i.e. all the staff of the preschool) and working outward (our neighborhood, our city, our county, our region…), then double back for individual concerns as He brings them to my mind. I’ve never kept a journal, it just didn’t work for me, but this is a nice halfway point between journaling and straight visualization. Thanks for the posts!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.