Prayer Triggers

Scripture tells us to pray without ceasing. How do you do that in a practical way? Why not try establishing some prayer triggers as reminders to pray throughout your day? This requires a bit of discipline at the beginning as you will need to determine what triggers would be most effective for you and would be easily remembered. Establishing prayer triggers is also a great way to teach kids to pray regularly.

Each time you see a school, you could use it as a prayer trigger to intercede for students, teachers and administrators. When you see a police car, ambulance or fire truck, pray for the first responders in your city. The news is always a great trigger – whenever you watch the news, pray over each story, event, happening, etc. Maybe you could use your refrigerator as a trigger and pray for those who are hungry.

Some people will use random triggers such as praying for family members as you brush your teeth. You will need to establish a habit so you attach these prayers to the act of teeth brushing.

Quick Start Guide for Adding Prayer Triggers as Prayer Reminders:

1. What things do you want to remember to pray for continually? Make a list of those things.
2. What thing, activity or person do you see or do regularly that you could associate with each one of the things you want to pray about? For example: I want to pray for my neighbors. Every day I go check the mail, so I attached my mailbox and the act of going to get the mail to praying for my neighbors. Pretty soon, after building this habit over several days, this became a regular prayer time. I would choose a different neighbor each day to pray for as I would go get the mail. The mailbox and the act of going to get mail was now an established Prayer Trigger.
3. Establish one or two prayer triggers firmly in your experience of prayer before moving on to another. Otherwise you could get overwhelmed. Take the time to let these prayer habits settle into your heart each day.
4. What random triggers could you use to remind yourself to pray about other things that are on God’s heart, like unity, revival, praying for the lost, etc.?

Prayer triggers are a simple and fun way to engage in the practice of praying without ceasing. Remember to always be listening to how God might want you to be the answer to the prayers you are praying!