This post was originally published January 21, 2015. This is THE most popular post on Intentional By Grace. It has been such a joy and honor to hear women’s testimonies from all over the world about how this idea has spurred you on into greater intimacy with Christ. I’m truly humbled by the response to this post (and video). To God be all the glory!
With that said, I want to let you know if this is your first time being here, welcome first off! You can learn more about Intentional By Grace here. Also, I do make regular updates to this post in the attempt to keep links up-to-date, answer viewer questions, and let you know about additional resources I’ve come across or created since the original posting! I won’t take much more of your time now, but once you finish reading this post, be sure to check out the additional links at the bottom so you can see my most recent working of my prayer notebook as well as other prayer resources I’ve put together.
Alright, thanks for being here … I’ll let you get back to your regularly scheduled viewing time. 🙂
A few months ago, I shared with you that my prayer life was a mess. Since then I’ve been taking steps to be more intentional about my prayer life.
What’s really amazing is that not only has my prayer life improved drastically in the last few months, but my daily devotion time with the Lord has too!
What did I do?
I created a prayer notebook!
Want to see inside my notebook?
Check out the video tour of my prayer notebook below.
{If you can’t see the video, then click here: How to Make a Prayer Notebook}
Want to make a prayer notebook for yourself?
Below is a step-by-step guide for creating a prayer notebook for yourself. I tried to be as detailed and thorough as possible not to overwhelm you, but to supply you with a full arsenal of ideas and inspiration for creating your own system that works for you.
How to Make a Prayer Notebook
What You Need:
- 3-ring binder (I used a 1.5 inch binder, but some can get by with a 1-inch binder)
- Notebook dividers (I used some el cheapos from Wal-Mart, but I think these ones with a pocket would be awesome too!)
- Notebook paper
- Pens (I’m in love with these pens)
The first thing I did was label my notebook dividers and place blank notebook paper between each tab.
My Prayer Journal Sections Include:
This is a bullet point list of sections I include. I go into more detail for each one below.
- Personal Evaluation
- Bible Study
- Scripture Study
- Word Study
- Gratitude
- Books
- Resources
- Archives
- Daily
- Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
Mission Statement
In the very front of my notebook, I put my personal mission statement. I’m a big advocate for determining your God-given mission statement. Why did God save you? What is your purpose?
Resources to Help You Develop a Personal Mission Statement
- Live for Him: A Grace-Filled Look at Planning
- Developing a Personal Mission Statement
- Why You Need a Mission Statement
- Why Did God Save You?
- What is Your Story?
I keep my mission statement in my prayer notebook because I use it to pray daily that God would help me fulfill His mission for my life and for my day.
Personal Evaluation
The first section of my notebook is Personal Evaluation. Each week, I complete a personal evaluation. I believe God gave us example of evaluating our work when He created the world.
If you remember, after each and every creation “God saw and declared it was good.” To see something means you actually have to look! To declare something as good you have to evaluate what you’ve done! God went over His work to make sure it was complete and perfect. (Ref. Genesis 1)
The purpose of this weekly evaluation is not to determine if I’m good enough or even to determine whether God is pleased with me or not. It is a time for me to take pause and consider if my actions align with my mission statement. It helps me to determine if my priorities are in line. It just gives me a short moment each week for the Lord to search my heart and reveal areas He desires for me to grow in Him.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. ~Psalm 19:14
This is my guiding prayer as I evaluate my life in light of God’s Word.
Resources to Help You Evaluate Your Life
Bible Study
The next section is my Bible journaling section. This is where I am daily in God’s Word writing what He’s revealing to me and teaching me through His Word.
Additionally, I keep a log of all the books of the Bible I have read. This helps me to keep track of what books I haven’t studied, as well as encourage me with how far I’ve come! My goal right now is to study (in depth) each book of the Bible. This means I’m moving slowly, but it’s exciting work and study! I’m loving it!
Resources to Help You with Bible Study
- Live for Him: A 7-Day Scripture Study on Living Intentionally
- 4 Ways to Be More Intentional with Your Spiritual Life
- How to Have an Effective Quiet Time {I referred to this series in my video above}
- 10 Bible Studies for Women That Are Worth Doing
Scripture Study
This section houses all of my scripture memory work. The worksheets I keep in this section help me to keep track of my review process. I’ve used this method for several years, and it works well for me.
Resources for Scripture Study
- Scripture Memory Worksheets (also in Live for Him: A Grace-Filled Look at Planning)
- Free Scripture Memory Printables
Word Study
Each year I choose one area of my spiritual walk to focus on. This year my one focus is growing in GRACE.
Therefore, I’ll be using this section to write out Bible verses on the topic of grace, make note of books I want to read about grace, quotes I find that enrich my understanding of grace, and written thoughts the Lord speaks to me throughout the year. As I study this word, this section will corral all that I learn on the subject!
Of course, any other word study I want to do throughout the year will go here as well. This section will be sort of like my very own concordance or index for important words and phrases I want to understand better.
Resources for Word Study:
Gratitude
The next section is where I write down any answered prayer requests, evidence of everyday grace, and pretty much anything I am thankful for.
At the very least, this section stands as a reminder to spend time in prayers of thanks before moving on to the next part of my daily devotions.
Books
This section is where I keep track of books I want to read, books others recommend to me to read, etc.
Resources to Help You Determine What Books to Read:
- 2015 Reading Challenge
- Books that Remind You of Grace
- Best Books I Read in 2014
- 15 Ways to Make More Time to Read
- 7 Books Every Christian Woman Should Read
Resources
This section is self-explanatory, I think. I will use this section to keep track of any resources like study guides, printables, etc.
Archives
I’m probably most excited about this section. One of the reasons I never stick with the daily binders I create is because they get too bulky! This prayer notebook is a daily tool, which means I needed a plan for all the “old material.” Hence the creation of the Archives Tab.
As I finish a word study, Bible study or my personal evaluations begin to fill up, I will move these pages to the archives tab. From there, I will transfer them to my reference binder, which I will create and share with you once I get to that point.
I’m so tired of losing the amazing Bible studies I complete, or the journal pages from years past. I want a way to corral my Bible studies into a reference. I think this archives tab will help me to do this while keeping my daily notebook from becoming a reference binder!
Daily
The next section begins my daily prayer time. I pray daily for my immediate family – the ones who live under my roof. I have a page with each of their names written at the top, and I’ve written specific prayer requests on each one. In addition, I’ve printed off prayer prompts for both my children and my marriage that I use as a daily guide.
Resources to Help You Pray for Your Family:
- Forever By Grace: 21-Day Prayer Challenge for Your Marriage
- 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Children
- A Mother’s Prayer
- Homemaker’s Prayer
After completing daily prayers, I move onto my weekly prayer list. This is where the rubber meets the road for me. So often I would receive prayer requests from others, but I would forget to pray for them. I certainly would never follow up with them! Now I have a place to collect these prayer requests so I can pray for my friends and family more faithfully!
Below is how I broke down my weekly prayers:
Sunday – Church leaders, their families, and our church as a whole (including individual members – pray through the church directory!)
Monday – Our business, finances, and ministries (aka, I pray for you, the one reading this!)
Tuesday – Extended family and long-distance friends
Wednesday – missions and organizations
Thursday – unbelieving family and friends, as well as our neighbors
Friday – Friday Night Meatballs Crew and local friends (not sure what Friday Night Meatballs means, read this post)
Saturday – government, government leaders, social justice issues, and news (this is blanket for everything else with the church and world at large)
I updated my Prayer Notebook!
Watch the new video flip thru by clicking the video below, or click here to watch directly on YouTube. This video was added April 2018.
Additional Resources to Help with Your Prayer Life:
If a journal is more your style, I updated my prayer notebook by transforming it into more of a journal format. Read the post here! There is also a video on that post to help you get a good feel for how I set up the journal.
Other posts you may be interested in:
- 3 Simple Ways to Fight Distraction While Praying
- 10 Resources to Transform Your Prayer Life
- My Prayer Life is a Mess: 3 Ways I’m Seeking to Improve
- 5 Reasons We Don’t Pray the Way We Should
- Is Your Home a Place of Prayer?
- My Favorite Quiet Time Resources for Small Children
- When Your Quiet Times Aren’t So Quiet: 10 Creative Quiet Time Ideas
- 3 Ways to Make Mornings Easier
What about you? Do you have a prayer notebook?
This post contains my affiliate links. See my full disclosure policy here.
My Bullet Journal®: The Discovery, The Method, The Game Changer
Good Morning! I love your blog and have been so blessed by the many things you share with us. I constructed a prayer journal last year, for the same reasons you mentioned: better organized and thorough and faithful prayer. I modeled my journal after this tutorial, which happens to be one of my most ‘pinned’ pins, and thought I would share it with you and the rest as an FYI. Your journal is organized much the same way and I highly recommend that everyone who would wish to be serious about their prayer life consider creating a journal of their own. Make it fit your life, using the journal models of others as a jumping off point. Blessings to all! Link to Prayer Journal pin below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=Jq8Zqm0gqTU&x-yt-ts=1421914688
I had a semi-prayer journal started. Lots of tabs with lots of stuff that wasn’t organized real well…so yeah, a mess. The binder I chose is gorgeous–I can pick it out of the “Binder Line-Up” on my bookshelves–and I wanted to love USING it too. After I watched your video last night, I dumped the whole thing out on my bed, started sticky-noting the tabs (so I can move the labels around until they feel ‘right’), and by the time I was done, I felt like the world had shifted. I need to finish going through my yearly evaluations and goal-setting and then I think I’ll have a working system. Thank you so much for all your hard work and your wonderful resources! They truly are a blessing.
Love. Love. Love! Mine needed a little “tweaking” and now I have some great ideas and inspiration. Thank you. Again! I’m so so thankful God led me to your blog.
I love alliteration, and came up with this general prayer schedule to help me (and these are the divisions I use in my prayer notebook):
M- Missionaries & (church) Ministers
T- town (local officials, community helpers, neighbors, etc.)
W- World (issues from the news, the President, etc.)
Th- Thoughts & Thanks- Holy Spirit led
F- Friends & Family
Sa- Sisters-in-Christ (prayer requests from Sunday School Class & Bible studies)
S-Sunday activities, Sabbath rest (pray over my church proceedings and for all Christians to experience rest)
Thanks for the links and suggestions!
I LOVE your alliteration idea, using this in my Journal! Thank You for sharing 🙂
Thanks for sharing, your suggestions really helped me!
So excited! Just made my binder today!!!
I have been following you for a couple years now… I love your ideas and I’m greatly blessed by your blog posts. I finally got around to incorporating something of yours into my own life – this prayer binder! I just finished creating mine (12:30am!! LOL) but I’m very excited to use it. I’ve really turned it into something I feel like I will use just because I need to, but also because I’ve made it very personal!
Thank you for allowing God to speak through you into our lives!
I put together a Prayer Journal last week after purchasing your 7 Day Scripture Study on Living Intentionally. “Intentional” is the word the Lord has laid on my heart for this year. I have loved both the study and my prayer journal. The Lord has totally transformed my time with Him over the past year, and these two tools have enriched it even more just over the past week. I used to struggle with prayer, but now I look forward to getting up every morning to pray for my family and friends! Thank you for sharing your heart with us each week. I find so much encouragement on your blog!
Thanks for taking the time to show how you did all this work! Im sure its a blessing spending time in prayer after all this organization. I really need to get my prayer life on track and me being an organized person im sure this will help! I bought my dividers and binder yesterday. Im ready to get started! Thank you so much! ♡
Just found your website through Pinterest. Have enjoyed several articles already. So, are you using this Prayer Notebook and Journaling everyday? The Prayer notebook is sort of a Bible Study/Prayer Notebook from what I understand from your tabs. So, what do you journal? Maybe I have not read enough of the website to understand yet. Maybe I just need to do it all. I know my life needs some ‘intentional’ and some organized prayer and Bible study. So much to learn and so little time.
Wow!!! This is just amazing!!! Thank you so so much!!! Im going to start with this as soon as I can!
I just finished my mission statement. I am working to put together a prayer notebook too. You have wonderful suggestions. The mission statement took careful thought, but with the help of your tools, I was able to finish it and am quite proud of it. (I hope that’s not sinful!) 😉 Thanks for posting!
Love this!! Going to try to make mine today thank you SO much! God bless!!!
I really like how you break down your categories into one day per week. Sometimes there are so many things to pray for that it can be overwhelming to do it every day and not be worried that you’re leaving anything out. I like that even though you only pray once a week for those things…they aren’t falling through the cracks or being forgotten, which is better.
Where do you find Bible Studies? I love the prayer notebook but I am having difficulty with the Bible Study section.
Thank you in advance.
I occasionally do a formal Bible study, but the majority of my study is done by picking a book of the Bible and reading, journaling, and looking up commentaries on the section I’m reading. 🙂 I do enjoy anything that Revive Our Hearts recommends, True Woman 101 and 201 study, Priscilla Shirer Bible studies to name a few.
So I happened upon this site while looking for different ways to make a prayer journal. I think God led me to it. Your organization is amazing and I can’t wait to make a prayer journal myself. I feel so scatter-brained and like a failure in my prayer life. This is just exactly what I need to keep me focused during prayer. So thank you. You have no idea how much you have helped me and I know this will change my prayer life to become bolder, more powerful, and consistent. Thank you ladies from the bottom of my heart!!
I am so glad you found this helpful!!!
Thanks for this pray notebook. I can”t wait to get started. I pray daily. This has been so helpful. May God continue to be with you.
Hi, I love your binder, where did you purchase it? I’ve searched everywhere on the internet and can’t find pretty binders.
Thank you!
It’s likely that I got it from Walmart or Staples 🙂
Thank you so much for showing me your prayer journal. I took a Masterlife class and one of the requirements was to complete a prayer journal. I used yours as an example for mine and I LOVE IT!
It has really changed my prayer life. I used to think I was too busy to have a quiet time but now with a prayer journal, I have a quiet time every morning. It does help to be intentional. I love reading your blog.
I have recommended it to all my friends. Thank you for the Planning 101 ebook. It is great!
I found this post on Pinterest and was surprised to see its helpfulness! I am very excited about beginning my prayer notebook and have signed up to continue following your blog!
Wonderful! I am so glad you found us 🙂
This is very resourceful. I’m going to use some of the stuff you mentioned and adapt to my time and space! This is exciting, as the new year approaches 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Can I ask … honestly .. have you found time to keep up with this practice over time ? I LOVE what I see here on your blog, but I noticed that a lot of it is dated now and hasn’t been regularly updated in some time. I would love to be more intentional with my prayer life, but I am wondering if this was a good ‘long term’ thing for you, or just another ‘did it for THAT year’ kind of thing ?
I love this question, and I have plans to do a follow-up post very soon on my prayer notebook. This is one of those things that I created, thought it would work, got really excited about it, and … STILL have, STILL works, STILL excited about. This prayer notebook has revolutionized my prayer time. It’s an ever growing, ever evolving notebook that has been a great template for growing in my prayer life. I have a long way to go still, but I can honestly say that this prayer notebook was a game changer for me. I just made an entry in it today as a matter of fact, flipped through my tabs for prayer time, and thanked God that He brought me to this point of prayer.
VERY good question!
I’m so glad to see this response because I was wondering the same thing. I have felt like I was spinning my wheels in my bible study and prayer over the past few months so I started searching the web for a way to get more organized. I found several blogs and after reading through them all, yours was by far the best and really made me the most excited. But I was curious as to whether or not you were still maintaining it. And I love the resource links that you posted! I’m big on reading additional information about everything (I’m one of those nerds that loves to learn!) so I find that so helpful. Thank you so much for sharing this and helping those of us struggling on our quest to get closer to God.
Wow! I recently stumbled onto your blog and started following you on fb. I LOVE what I have read so far. Lol This binder is insane! I have a messy notebook, with a couple tabs. What an inspiration! Thanks for sharing! So refreshing to find someone who is really just about sharing God’s love and how to grow your relationship with him. Excited to see what else I can learn from you! Thanks again, God bless!
Mine was insane before too! This is the aftermath of a little bit (maybe a lot?) of work. 🙂
Thank you for this! It’s something I’ve recently been feeling the need to create for myself. My prayer life has become weak, and I know I need to revive it.
I have started to do many of the thing you’ve mentioned, but you’ve provided a wonderful way to put it all together.
Something that I feel that I need to do, that you didn’t mention, is a List of Affirmations. It’s similar to your mission statement in that it’s like a mantra to be looked at daily, but instead of actions or goals, it’s a list of statements of facts that are meant to encourage me in times of doubt. They remind me to trust God, and know that I am surrounded by people who love me.
I just thought I’d share, because maybe someone else struggles with being confident in their faith and in themselves, too.
Again, thank you so much for sharing this!
I love that idea, Erin. Several years ago I was in counseling for severe depression and the very first thing my counselor had me do was start an affirmation notebook and I had to write 4 affirmations about myself every morning and then I had to go stand in front of the mirror and say them outloud to myself. It definitely helped me and it’s a practice that I still use occasionally now, though probably not as often as I should. The enemy often disguises himself as that nasty little voice inside your own head. I will definitely be adding this tab to my binder!
Yes, I needed to see this and add it to my prayer notebook too! Thank you for sharing!
Yes, actually I do have a prayer journal, which I shared on my own blog a couple years ago and it is very similar to what you do. Great minds think alike! 😀
I had an inspiration one day a few years back about how to notate answered prayers in my journal and thought I’d share it with my readers. It’s copyrighted, though, but please feel free to use and share as long as you please link back to my blog. Thanks so much! May God bless your ministry here!! Good stuff.
http://pleasant-words.blogspot.com/2014/03/bible-study-and-prayer-journal-part-3.html
Thank you so much for all of this! I have been bookmarking and opening new tabs like a crazy woman on your site. 🙂
I really found this practical, motivating and so encouraging. God bless you!
Hi,
I am 19 and im not a mom or anything like that lol. But I am making one of these, and I’m trying to personalize it to my life more. I am a college student and I got caught up in all the work and school that I neglected my relationship with GOd to the point that I don’t really feel him anymore. I was hoping that this journal would help me get back on track. How would you suggest I do my personal evalutation? Mine would be very different from yours, I just dont know how to start it or anything
Thanks so much for this information. I have my notebook and tabs – all ready to go! I have been retired for the last 12 years – I think I have lost all I knew about organization. This is just what I need to get back on track.
It’s easy to do – lose what you know. Or at least sometimes we feel that way. Glad you got our organizing mojo back. 🙂
Hi Leanne! I’ve never tried any kind of plan for organizing my prayer life – I’ve always left prayer time as “when I think of it” – never a good plan! 😉
With three young kids 4 and under at home I’m having a hard time thinking about when this could happen…
When do you do it? How long tdo you find you’re able to spend on it?
It wasn’t until I started making a plan for my prayer life that I began to pray more consistently. I fit it in here and there 15-30 minutes throughout the day. Right now, we do room time with our boys in the morning (you can read about it here: https://intentionalbygrace.com/how-my-kids-stopped-driving-me-crazy-in-the-mornings/). Otherwise, I try to make quiet time mandatory for everyone at some point during the day. It’s not ideal, but it’s the season I’m in and I just make it work. 🙂
Thank you so much for this post and for the suggestions on a separate post for good books to read! I am about to be a first time new mother and have been in a spiritual rut now for months – at a time when I thought I should be at such an emotional and spiritual high. I started reading Jen Wilkin’s book “Women of the Word” on your suggestion and have created a prayer journal similar to the one you describe here. Nothing in Jen’s book is new news, it’s all things I have known to be true but have forgotten, and diving back into the word and prayer in renewed and refreshed ways have been enormously helpful! Thank you!
Thank you for sharing your system! I am going to implement it! So helpful in being intentional in prayer and covering all the areas of Bible reading and study.
Hi,
I really love this prayer notebook and plan to make it with my bible study. But I am having a hard time finding the printables for the weekly evaluation and the yearly evaluation. Can anyone help?
Thank you,
Emily
Those printables are in my eBook, Live for Him: A Grace-Filled Look at Planning.
Hi Leigh Ann,
‘Checking in’ from the Netherlands, I wanted to thank you for your inspiration and useful tips how to start and use a prayer notebook. Thank you so much and God Bless you and your family! Greetings, Susanne
Hi do you still have the weekly personal evaluation worksheet available?
They are available in my eBook, Live for Him: A Grace-Filled Look at Planning. 🙂
I recently decided that I need a prayer notebook so I searched for all those pins that I buried away! LOL! I just watched the video on this post and I really appreciate you sharing what you do and how it works for you. I love that you have divided up things by day so that everything eventually gets covered. How easy would it be to forget to consistently pray for the government, social justice, etc. I so appreciate how you have set it all up. Thank you for sharing your life with the rest of us!
This is such a wonderful blog.It is just what I needed to get my prayer life organized. I have been trying to get back into a relationship with God and this will really help. Thanks for this wonderful ministry.
Hi Leigh Ann, so glad that God brought me to your site intentionally :-), It’s been a struggle for me, to live as God has called me to, when I don’t know what it is. Mostly, I think I was afraid to know what it is, to be committed, so the fear has stopped me living my life intentionally for God. It is now the time to change, God has brought me here. And I thank God for His grace to me, to show me that He love me and wants me to live fully intentional for Him, by His grace.
I have finally made my prayer notebook and I’m so excited to start using it!!! 🙂
Thank you for the idea!
Hello! Thank you for this.I started doing daily prayer Journaling but gave up sometime.But yours inspires me for but a few days It matches up what I have been doing.
Though your site is for women,I must confess it’s for everyone, it’s blessing me immensely and I will use this to encourage my entire household and the house Church I lead.
Hi Liegh Ann your honesty and testimony through your site has been very helpful for me to get back in a relationship with God. I have veered off track but God’s grace to me led me to your site to live intentionally for God. I struggled with prayer, how to start, where to start ect. Thank you for sharing your journey with God and I’m excited to start my walk with God again.
Praise the Lord! I’m so glad to hear this 🙂
This is my first visit to Intentional By Grace. I love your prayer journal. It has inspired me to make my own. I’m always looking for ways to help me get closer to Christ and be the woman He intends me to be. Thank you for sharing.
I love your site!!! The Prayer Journal is an awesome idea and I did intend to get started on making one as soon as the new year came in. However, my daughter and family moved in with us and it really isn’t a good time. I’ve beaten myself up ever since. I’ve decided to wait until they leave mid Feb. I so long to be organized, focused, and stay-on-track with life. I’m getting older and it seems I easily get distracted and things I was in the middle of seems to get pushed aside. The older I get the more I realize I need a checklist!!! lol Thanks for sharing this notebook with me. I am looking forward to beginning it soon – actually, now that I have a few quiet moments I will take a look at that mission statement and see if I can at least accomplish that.
Yes I do! I love your thorough explanation of how to set one up. I wonder how long your quiet time takes? Do you do all the portions every day?
I generally spend about an hour each day in “quiet time.” This means I’m drinking my coffee, waking up slowly, reading a book, and then studying and praying. How much time I spend at each point depends on the day. Sometimes I spend more time in study. Other times I go straight to prayer. I get up at 6 and usually transition to work hours at 7. My husband takes care of the children in the morning. When he’s not, I can still usually get that hour. If I’m interrupted, I just go with the flow. 🙂