In 2014, while engaged in a phone conversation about prayer with a friend, I was impressed to develop a prayer calendar. The purpose of the calendar was to help me develop a greater commitment to the discipline of prayer in my daily walk. I also desired to be more intentional in praying when people requested me to pray for them.
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I began to populate my calendar. I started with 10 people, and for each one I assigned a day of the month on which I would pray for them. Every month on their day, I began to text them saying, “Good morning! How can I pray for you today?”
What has happened over the last 11 years of having my prayer calendar has been remarkable. The original 10 have grown to 690 people for whom I pray every month. That is an average of 23 people per day. I added Dr. Chuck Lawless to my calendar in January 2015. For the past 10 years on the 28th of the month, I have texted him and then prayed for him. We have both been amazed at how consistently the prayer text has come at just the right time.
How do I do it — and how might you do it?
Maybe the way I tackle this prayer commitment will help you do something similar.
1. Use the calendar app on your phone. I created a calendar called “Pastor Prayer Calendar.” Every entry is set for “all day” to repeat every month. Creating a specific calendar enables you to keep your prayer calendar separate from your ministry and personal calendar.
2. Prioritize praying. It now takes me about three hours over the course of a day to respond to all the requests I get, but you won’t need that much time to get started with a shorter list. You just need to make intercessory prayer a priority in your schedule.
3. Be consistent. A prayer calendar is not something you want to start and not follow through. When I first started, the requests were often vague and superficial. After 11 years, the prayer requests are deeper and more personal. Consistency builds trust, and trust allows you to pray for deep things in the prayer partner’s life.
4. Respect confidentiality. As the people on your prayer calendar begin to share more with you, the issue of confidentiality becomes vital. Confidentiality is always important when you are praying for people, but it is even more so when people begin to let you into the innermost parts of their lives. My prayer partners must know that I would not share their requests with anyone without their permission.
5. Always respond to the prayer requests with a prayer. We live in a day and time where we seem to always be looking for shortcuts in our communication. We would prefer to reply with emoticons, acronyms and short phrases like, “You’ve got it” or “Got you covered.” Those are inadequate and impersonal responses to someone who has asked for your prayers. Every request I receive receives the response of a specific prayer for the requests others have made.
6. Keep the texts from the previous months. It may seem crazy, but I have never deleted one text thread from anyone I’ve prayed for in the past 11 years. One of the benefits of my prayer calendar is being able to look back at all the ways God has answered prayers. The answers have not always been what we asked for, but God has always answered.
7. Always watch for new names to add to the list. The original 10 were local pastors and deacons in my church. Over the years, my list has grown as I began to build relationships with young pastors and serve a local association, our state convention and the Southern Baptist Convention in leadership roles. I simply asked friends if I could add them to my prayer calendar. No one’s ever turned me down (in fact, I’ve now had ministers contact me and ask to be added).
My calendar has proven to be one of the greatest blessings in my life and ministry, and I encourage you to start developing a similar calendar.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Craig Carlisle, director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association, and published by chucklawless.com.
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