Persevere in Prayer: A Simple Tip for a More Consistent Prayer Life
I was 22 years old, full of dreamy ideals, and fresh out of college when I became the Life Skills Support Special Education teacher in a small-town public high school. I had visions for planning engaging lesson plans and teaching my students to thrive in the world.
A month into my new career, I vividly remember sitting in the classroom at the end of a grueling day, wiping the tears from my eyes, and wondering how in the world I was going to force myself to return to the classroom the next day.
Nothing about my job was going according to my plans.
I spent most of my time trying to keep my students from hurting themselves, locking themselves in bathroom stalls, fleeing the building, or stabbing their peers with pencils.
As I sat at my desk and looked at the classroom full of empty desks, I was desperate. In my desperation, I closed the lesson plan book, walked to each desk, and began praying over each desk, imagining the faces of my students as I prayed.
I prayed that God would enable me to break through to them, and most of all, I prayed he would give me eyes to see each student through the lens of his love.
When We Persevere in Prayer
Nothing noteworthy happened right away.
The next day, one of my students attacked another teacher with scissors. A few days later, another student was expelled for violence. Meanwhile, as the days rolled into weeks—and the weeks into months—I continued regularly praying over each student.
Over time, the most remarkable shift took place.
I realized I loved my students.
I wasn’t a mother yet, and I had no framework for the kind of love I felt for my students.
Looking back two decades later, I would describe the love God poured into my heart as a form of maternal love. I loved the sweet boy who often needed me to wipe his nose. My heart overflowed with love for the girl who brought me gifts from her home, including every spice from her mother’s spice rack. I loved the boy who often locked himself in the restroom and refused to come out.
The more I prayed for my students, the more God’s love flooded my heart.
My job didn’t get any easier. But the change of heart enabled me to lay down my desires and hopes for what we were going to learn each day and, instead, embrace the lessons God wanted my students to learn.
I learned to accept that my days would rarely go the way I planned. I learned to laugh more often and love more deeply. God began teaching me to live in his grace in that tiny classroom.
Prayer Changes Our Hearts
God wants to enable us to see the difficult people in our lives the way he sees them. He wants to align our hearts with his heart and fill us with his love. When we regularly pray for the people who challenge our patience, God fills our hearts with his love for them.
Throughout the past two decades of consistently praying for the people in my life, I’ve seen God answer some of my prayers with miracles. Most often, the miraculous answer to prayer is the way God fills me with his love for these people.
He uses my prayers to deepen my compassion. He uses my prayers to give me his eyes and his heart for people who challenge me, hurt me, and frequently interrupt my plans.
Begin praying for the people within your sphere of influence, and God will do the same for you. He will fill you with his love.
Persevere in Prayer Using a Prayer List
I tend to have good intentions to pray for others, but if I don’t visually remind myself to do so, I forget.
For this reason, I’ve used all sorts of prayer lists over the past two decades.
Currently, I have a list of names in the front of my prayer journal, and I pray over my list every day. I encourage you to think about starting your prayer list as a way of reminding yourself to pray. Here are a few suggestions.
Tips for Starting a Prayer List
First, write the names of the days of the week across the top of a piece of paper or across the inside cover of your journal.
Second, under each day of the week, list a group of people from your life—a group for whom you want to pray. My lists include a day for praying for extended family members, a day for praying for adult friends, a day for neighbors, a day for church leadership, and more.
Third, create a “Daily” heading at the top of the page and list the people for whom you will daily pray. For me, this list includes my husband, children, and those closest to me.
Fourth, once your list is made, put it where you will see it daily. It might be the wall beside the mirror where you get ready each morning, the table where you drink coffee, inside your Bible or journal, or next to the treadmill.
Fifth, spend a few minutes praying over the people on the list daily. Note that this doesn’t have to be a long and arduous process. 
How to Use a Prayer List to Connect With God and Persevere in Prayer
For a few years, praying over the names on my prayer list was a cumbersome task. I labored long over each name and wracked my brain over how I should pray.
As time passed, the Lord led me to imagine lifting each person on the list before his heavenly throne. He led me to “place the person in his presence” and wait to see if he impressed anything on my heart. Sometimes, nothing came to me. I simply lifted the person into the presence of God for a moment.
At other times, a thought floated through my mind about sending a message to the person or asking how I might pray. Sometimes, I felt a strong nudge to pray in a particular direction. Over time, I learned that this kind of prayer aligned my heart with God and helped me to see my loved ones through his eyes.
This is how I pray over the names on my list daily now. I imagine lifting each person on my daily list into the presence of God. Next, I imagine God on his heavenly throne pouring his love through the person I’m praying for. I then wait to see if I sense a nudge to reach out or pray a more specific prayer.
Following Through
The Lord has placed certain people within your sphere of influence for a reason and a purpose. Taking time to pray for these people can soften resistant hearts and prepare them to encounter Jesus in deeper ways.
When we persevere in prayer, we are doing business in the spiritual realm. Spiritual forces in the heavenly realm move in response to our prayers. We might not be able to understand this movement, but we can trust that God is working.
Spiritual forces in the heavenly realm move in response to our prayers. We might not be able to understand this movement, but we can trust that God is working. #prayer #faith #hope #spiritualwarfare Share on XAn eBook to Help You Stand Firm in Spiritual Attacks
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