How to Create a Prayer Strategy That Will Change Every Thing

Do you struggle with prayer? I did for years.  If you’ve been walking with Jesus for two seconds you know that the Bible says we should pray – pray without ceasing, pray about everything.  Knowing the Bible says to pray and actually feeling like you pray well – or that God answers your prayers -is very different.  This changed for me when I learned how to create a powerful prayer strategy – it changed everything!

Why Create a Prayer Strategy?

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NASB)

“pray without ceasing;” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB)

For years I thought prayer was just one more religious activity to add to my checklist.  A checklist I had put together to be sure I was pleasing my Father… That is one of many lies God is helping me replace this year – for more about that see:

• 3 Urgent Reasons to Fight the Enemy for Our Thoughts
• 3 Ways to Fight the enemy for Freedom in Our Thoughts
• How to Fight the Lies of the Enemy that I am Fat and Ugly

I never thought about a prayer strategy as part of my list of things.

My checklist of religious activities I was using to please God is below:

1. Read the bible or have a quiet time.
2. Go to church
3. Tithe
4. Love others
5. Pray

Does Your Prayer Life Match Biblical Examples?

Prayer was always just tagged onto the end of my list.   There definitely wasn’t a Prayer Strategy. 

Prayer felt boring and seemed pointless.  Honestly, I really tried to pray, but I didn’t see the point.  No matter how many times I prayed “God, heal them”, “God, change him”, “God, help fix this” nothing changed.  Can you relate? 

• Abuse happened
• My parents divorced
• We lived in poverty
• My dad was disabled
• Our family fell apart
• Indescribable loss came
• Rejection followed me
• I was betrayed, abused, and divorced…

And to top all of that off, God seemed to listen to other people.  I heard stories of Joy, great miracles, and life changes that happened when people prayed.

I want that kind of powerful effective prayer. Don’t you? 

When I read the Bible I see answers to prayer.  Why didn’t I see God answer my prayers?

How could I create a powerful prayer strategy?   

Why Does God Answer Some Prayers but Not All?

Was sin keeping my prayers from being answered?

Had I missed something on that religious checklist that was keeping my prayers unanswered?

I just didn’t understand or know how to change things.  Can you relate?

There finally came a point I just walked away from God – from Christianity and religion altogether.  I’ve shared part of that story before (See Why I moved from Christian to Disciple) but let me share another part of it here.

When I quit religion…

By religion, I mean living life trying to be good and do all the religious things to please God and men. 

When I quit religion and began getting to know Jesus and trying to live as He said in the Bible – everything changed.

Discipleship Changed Prayer 

No longer was prayer something to check off of my list.  I wasn’t praying to please God.

No, Prayer was about sharing my life with God.  Telling God about my joys and trials, inviting Him to change what He would and change me to accept what He wouldn’t.

Prayer changed for me when my focus shifted from pleasing God with religion to knowing God and living like Him.  

4 Powerful Promises in Scripture About Prayer

My faith grew as I saw promises in scripture about prayer.  The Bible is filled with promises about prayer.

1. Powerful prayer is persistent prayer.
   • Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7 NASB)
2. There is power in asking others to pray with me.
   • “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:19-20 NASB)
3. I need to ask, and ask God to help keep my motives in check!
   • “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4: 2-3 NASB)
4. It is important to be confident when we pray.
   • “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16 NASB)

Through these promises I learned that my prayers could be more than relational, they could be powerful and strategic.  Powerful prayer takes scripture and prays it holding God to His promises with faith.

Faith Leads to Powerful Effective Strategic Prayer

Powerful prayer is effective prayer when faith is added to it.

Do you believe that every word of the Bible is true?  I mean every single word.  Not just true 2000+ years ago, but true for me and us today.  I had grown up believing some of the scripture only applied to the apostles or the patriarchs.  But the Bible doesn’t say that!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 NASB)

When you believe that all of the Bible is true your faith grows!  When this revelation struck me I began taking my biggest needs to God and asking if the Bible had any promises about them.  Where I found a promise I would write the verse down and begin to pray that verse back to God – holding Him to His promise.

Faith changed my prayer life!  Faith led to effective and powerful fervent prayer strategies!

Answered Prayer Leads to More Powerful Prayer

God began answering those scriptures turned into prayers.  So birthed my belief in having a prayer strategy!

With each answer, my faith grew bolder and I began taking everything to God in Prayer.  Y’all, God began to rock my world.

• Answers to prayer were becoming normal.
• Changes in my heart, mind, and perspective were happening every day.
• God was working and moving in my life in powerful ways.

Well, in every area except my marriage.  I had been holding my marriage back from Him and trying to make it all work myself…

Until God brought me to my knees about that as well.  God showed me the Pride, Self-righteousness, and Idolatry I had been holding onto.  Do You Fight the Wrong Enemy in Your Marriage too?

For years I thought prayer was just one more religious activity to add to my checklist. A checklist I had put together to be sure I was pleasing my Father... I never thought about a prayer strategy as part of my list of things. Share on X

Strategic Prayer Spiritual Warfare Over My Marriage

Then He began to teach me to pray strategically over my marriage.

Some would call it War Room Prayer but I don’t have a specific room or area I pray in.  Many times I am so angry when I start to pray that I am walking through the neighborhood.  Our block could be my war room.  Or I hide out in the bathroom to pray.  You don’t have to start creating a prayer room if you need to jump right in do it where you are comfortable! But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me share my method with you!

How I Create a Powerful Effective Prayer Strategy

1. Make a list of the things I am worried about
2. Take that list to Google
   1. It used to be a Bible concordance, but now Google has them for free 😉
   2. Google: Bible Verses about … fill in the blank
3. Write out the verses that apply to the situation
   • I have to read through lots of verses to find some that really apply in the context.
4. Then I write the verses out as prayer and put them where I can read them through the day.  Some extra ways to spread the Word are:
   • Text the pray to myself
   • Copy and paste it into my calendar on my phone because then I have it handy when I storm out of the house and can’t remember the verse.

I use a prayer journal and set a schedule to pray through certain people or areas on certain days of the week (that way I can fit all my needs in consistently each week)..

What is a War Room Prayer?

If you are creating a prayer strategy with me and you’ve followed the 4 steps above you are ready to write the prayer. 

To make a prayer a war room type prayer you are going to use the scripture and fill in specific names and details.  

Take your strategic prayer points and add them to the prayer you are writing out as well.  For example.  I often pray over my husband’s work situation.  Some Bible verses to pray about work include Psalm 90:17; Proverbs 16:3 and Ecclesiastes 5:19-20.  

I write them out this way:

Lord, let YOUR favor be upon Bud, and confirm and reveal the work of his hands. 

YOU said Lord, that YOU give men the reward of their labor as a gift.  Help BUD rejoice in it with gladnes of heart.

Teach Bud to commit his work to YOU, and please establish YOUR plans in his life.

Easy peasy!

Use A Prayer Journal

When I journal the prayers I get to mark answered prayers – which builds my faith so much!

It also helps on the days I don’t want to pray or I can’t remember what I needed to pray about.  Love Prayer Journals!  If you need a war room prayer journal, be sure to check out The Strategic Prayer Journal in the HopeJoyInChrist Shop!

We All Struggle and Need a Prayer Strategy

Why am I writing about this today?

I get so many questions from you about how to pray for certain situations and what verses to pray over hard things.  I love answering those questions individually, but Y’all, we all struggle with these things.  So I am going to spend time sharing those answers in a series.  Some of them already have Scripture to pray over your husband pulled together and prayers are written and you can access them in the Resource Library here.  Not a HJIC member?  It’s free.  Sign up below!

Do you believe any of these lies? 

• Everyone else has this down.
• The other Christians have it all together.
• I am the only one who can’t figure out prayer. 

I used to believe every single lie.  We all have heard them!  We all struggle and need a Prayer Strategy.  

Prayer is a Hard Discipline to Begin 

But prayer is a hard discipline to begin for all of us!  The key is just this – don’t give up!  Keep praying.  Learn more about prayer.  Find ways to lean into this discipline and become a Prayer Warrior

Some steps to push through the hard parts of prayer – especially prayer for your husband are below:

• Choosing to find verses instead of staying angry or spouting off at the mouth takes practice.
• Being honest with God about the hard things takes practice and vulnerability.
• Accepting how He changes things His way and In His time -or how He chooses to leave things unchanged is just hard!
  • At times His answer is to change us instead of the situation.
  • He longs for us to surrender everything and let Him work it out His way and that often includes changing His child.

We can do this better together- in a community.  When we learn and grow in a community it grows our faith – we don’t fall prey to the lies of the enemy and we keep moving forward instead of getting stuck!

If you have something you need help praying over – drop it in the comments below or email me directly anytime – I’ll add it to the series.

Powerful, Strategic Prayer is effective to change Everything. 

Becoming a prayer warrior this way is not hard – and so worth it!

I honestly believe that – because I have lived it and seen God do Exceedingly Abundantly Beyond all I could have ever asked for or imagined.

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3: 20-21 NASB)

in HIM,

If you enjoyed this you would also like these Posts:

• How to Fast and Pray in a Way that Pleases God
• Be a Biblical wife to an Ungodly Husband
• 40-Days to Be Still and Know God more