I believe that technology can aid us in innumerable ways. But, I never thought that it would aid in my prayer time. Let me tell you, it has. And, I just wanted to pass this nugget of information on to anyone who read this post.
The name of the App is PrayerMate. It is a free app that can be used on Android or Apple Devices. And it works like an organized prayer list for your phone. I will tell you how I use it and maybe that will sell it for you. You set up categories and then items within the categories for your prayer time. Then it works like a prayer list that you use as you pray.
Categories And Subjects
The categories are just what it sounds like. They are categories that your prayers fall under. The Subjects within the categories are those things that fall within your categories. Here is a little of how it works.
Maybe, like me, you like to pray a prayer straight out of the Bible to begin. It could be a Psalm or something else. So, the first category I have is “Biblical Prayers”. After I created the category “Biblical Prayers” I created subjects within that category. So, one of the subjects is Matthew 9:38, another subject is Psalm 138, another, Psalm 16, Psalm 23, so on an so forth. One last thing is to set the number of items within each category that you want to pray for each day. So, under the “Biblical Prayers” category I will pray one item each day. So, PrayerMate pulls up the next subject the next time I open the app and begin praying. You can set this number to anything from 1 to 30. So, if you choose to pray for 7 things within a category it will pull up the next 7 subjects in that category.
The Categories can be as broad as you would like. You could follow the Lord’s Prayer in making categories and list subjects within each category. You could make a list of categories that you already pray for and place the subjects within it. It is very adaptable to what you want to do with it. After you set it up, it is very easy to use.
Operation World
David Platt suggests praying for the nations using Operation World in one of his books. Operation World has a live feed that can be placed into your PrayerMate App. It is praying for individual nations daily. So, every time I open the app a new nation and the particular prayer needs and praises for that nation are there for me to see.
Pastoral Usage
As a student pastor I believe that part of what I do is pray for the students under my care individually. That can become a daunting task. Pastors likely feel the same way about praying for their entire congregation. But, I have found that PrayerMate actually helps with that also.
I have a category that is titled “Students”. The students that are in our student ministry are each a subject of prayer within that category. If I talk with a student and find out something that I need to pray about then I add it to their subject heading. Then, depending on how many people you have in your ministry and how much time you spend in prayer, you can set the number of items to pray for within the category. If you have a student ministry of 50 students and want to pray for them all during your week then you could pray for 7 or 8 students per day.
It Can Be Eye Opening
I have found this to be rather eye opening and awe inspiring also. Not for any new reason, but because I can see what prayers God has answered. There have been times when a subject pops up that I haven’t seen in a few days that has already been answered. So, because it is typed into my phone, I am blessed in the same way that people are when they write it in their notebooks. And I am, at that moment thankful to God for what He has done.
My Assessment
PrayerMate is a very good app as an aid in prayer. It can help you to be more organized in your prayer time and pray for those things that you need to pray for. It has helped me tremendously in these areas. But, it doesn’t carve out the time for you. You still have to make time to pray.
R. Dwain Minor
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