Your Prayer Journal – A Section for Petition & Intercession
Some people might think petition and intercession shouldn’t be at the end of the prayer journal. They might think, “isn’t that what prayer is all about? Bringing your requests to God.” Why is this the last sections in the book? I will explain as I share my section for petition and intercession.
When I put my prayer journal together, I knew that confession needed to come first. I wanted to make sure that as I begin my time of prayer, I pause and search my heart. I need God to search my heart as well.
Confession should flow into praise and worship. As we confess, we see who God is and that should lead us to worship him. It makes sense to me to include the section of worship after confession and to have a section for thanksgiving. All of that puts my heart and mind in the right place to bring my petitions and intercessions to God.
The last two sections in my prayer journal are petitions and intercessions.
Petitions
This is just a section for my requests for me and my immediate family. What works for me is having lined paper and I just write the date and a request. Not every day has a request as I might be praying that same thing for a few days. I might also record answers to prayer, promises of God, or ways I see God working.
If you are visual, you might want to include photos. I have done that in the past.
This is where I ask but I also want to be listening to God speak. I want my requests to be in line with God’s heart and his will. I will record what I am hearing just to have that written to remind myself.
Intercessions
This is a section for other intercessions, praying for others. This section includes individuals, groups of people like church leadership team, or other areas of prayer like a ministry or work in a specific location. I even have a page for my blog, where I pray for my readers and my writing.
My notebook is a three-ring notebook which makes it easy to add pages. I have printed out my Praying for Missionaries, Praying for Teens and included those in this section.
This is a big section and what I have done it just put a marker in where I pause each day. The next day I begin where I left off and just pray. When I am done I move the marker, ready for the next day.
I have tried breaking this up into areas for each day but it seemed that there were some days that were rushed and then I tended to jump over those intercessions.
In both of these sections, I feel that for me it is important that I record not only my requests but also the ways that I see God working.
This is part of a series where I share my prayer journal.
3 Things You Need to Include in Your Prayer Journal
A Section for Praise & Worship
This is the post that started it all 7 Books that Will Encourage you to Pray More.
3 thoughts on “Your Prayer Journal – A Section for Petition & Intercession”
Excellent explanation of petition. I really like using a prayer journal, it’s very healing to write prayers. Thanks to bloggers and youtubers, I can always learn more
Ok, question on confession being first in prayer, the Lord’s Prayer is our example of how to pray and the order of our prayers, and so we are to praise first “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”.
Where did you find biblical instruction that we should confess first? I’m genuinely asking this, not criticizing. I would love to know biblical examples of this.
Of course God hears our prayers regardless, He delights just in our coming to Him, but we should glorify Him above all in our life and to understand that we are standing before a holy God when we pray should give us complete reverence for who He is snd we should praise first.
Thank you and blessings!
That is a good comment. When I created my prayer journal, I was thinking of the sections. I agree that it is important that we address God first and Jesus does give us that model. The reason I put confession as the first section is thinking of David in Psalm 51 and how he needed to confess his sin to be right with God.
I hope this helps you. Thank you for your thoughts.