Planning is essential to everything we do and if you want to achieve better results in any area of your life start with a plan. \u00a0That’s what our Family Plan is. \u00a0It’s nothing more than a way for us to better every area of our life and today we discuss how we do that in the area of prayer. \u00a0\u00a0In the previous post<\/a> we talked about how that looks, today we want to go just a little bit deeper.<\/p>\n How do you know what to pray? First, we pray for our parents and their churches. \u00a0We pray for our pastors<\/a> <\/span>and mentors<\/a><\/span>. \u00a0We receive emails weekly of the prayer requests from our campus and we prayer over those. \u00a0We pray for the people in our small groups and our office teams. \u00a0We love praying for our friends. \u00a0We can see God working in their lives unlike many of our other prayer targets. \u00a0We believe that we can’t leave the lives of our friends in the hands of their other friends, what if they’re not praying for them? \u00a0Our motto is this…if not us then who? \u00a0We make sure that our friends, family and teams have someone who prays specifically for them. \u00a0Who’s covering your friends in prayer? \u00a0Who has your parents covered? \u00a0Who’s praying for your office? \u00a0If not you, then who? \u00a0Maybe they have the same excuses that you gave for not praying. \u00a0Let’s end that today, create\u00a0a plan for prayer that has them listed.<\/span><\/p>\n A board of prayers Today is Friday! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The First Meeting of Our Day – Part 2 Last week’s blog post was meant to be a single post, but I needed to continue with showing you a few of our Family’s prayer goals or targets. \u00a0Due to the feedback we received, I’m glad we extended this message after all; it peeked the interest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-executive-administration","8":"category-toolkit","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170421-TIF-Blog-The-First-Meeting-of-Our-Day-2.png?fit=760%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4jb7V-gb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerryaclark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>Let’s begin with how does one know what to pray. \u00a0You see ordinary thinking will have you go into prayer without a plan or your plans. \u00a0If God plans, then you should. \u00a0He says a person who plans is wise<\/a>. <\/span>\u00a0We know what to pray because we use our written Family Plan to decide for us. \u00a0Each page has something that defines a particular area of our life. \u00a0It has where we are and what we’d like to see happen in this area this year. \u00a0So depending on the results we’ve seen, we talk with God about where we are and how much further we have to go to achieve what we’ve planned. \u00a0I kid you not, every time He gives us something (a thought or idea) that helps us move the plan further along.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nWhat you didn’t ask for.
\n<\/b>What I need to warn you about is an effect that I need to give a name. \u00a0When you pray, you will always receive more back than you can really handle. \u00a0Let me explain why, then you can research it for yourself using the characters in the Bible. \u00a0When you receive instructions, thoughts or ideas from God, they are enormous. \u00a0His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are better.<\/a> \u00a0<\/span>So every time He gives you something, it’s larger than you can think of and better than your best thoughts and ideas. \u00a0God doesn’t know how to be limited as we are. \u00a0He has no limits. \u00a0\u00a0Most of the time, I’m a bit overwhelmed at what comes from our meetings. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryaclark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170421-TIF-SM-The-First-Meeting-of-Our-Day-2-400x400.png?resize=400%2C400\")
If not us then who…
\n<\/b>When people naturally pray, they can spend the majority of the time focused on themselves. \u00a0Because Pamela and I have a plan, we spend less time praying for ourselves and more time on others. \u00a0We have others-centered prayer commitments listed in our Family Plan. \u00a0We participate in our local church’s prayer shield. \u00a0We cover (in prayer) our church’s leadership team and their supporting staff. \u00a0Why you ask? \u00a0I was once in their shoes. \u00a0I know what it takes and the pressures they experience. \u00a0So then, what we pray over our lives, we pray for them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Let me provide just one helpful tool. \u00a0Mark Pettus<\/a> <\/span>mentioned this in a message several years ago. \u00a0He has a cork-board<\/a> that he uses to pin prayer requests to. \u00a0When I heard that, something came alive in me, I went to Walmart immediately, and got one. \u00a0We have it hanging in our bathroom and use it everyday. \u00a0We place index cards on it with prayer requests we pickup from those we encounter or know about. \u00a0The most exciting thing about this prayer board is when we get to remove a prayer request from the board. \u00a0We record and date each card so that we know when we began praying for the need and the date the prayer was answered. \u00a0God loves it when you plan for stuff like this. \u00a0We plan to have answered prayers because we know if we pray it, He hears it.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nI’m sure I have given you a lot to think about. \u00a0While my goal was to help you establish a plan for your family’s prayer time, I believe I’ve also exposed another way for you to transform your prayer time, meeting with God. \u00a0What would your life be like if all your prayers were answered? \u00a0Leave us a comment or simply reply via\u00a0email<\/a>.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n