I’m so glad that you have a battle book in your hands, either by building one with me or receiving one as a gift. I thought I’d give a little more guidance on using one. I always say, use it how it fits best for you. First, I will repeat what I instructed in class then we can talk more about variations.
The book you built or were gifted, is broken down in two maybe three sections. My idea behind this is to prioritize who and what you want to pray for every day in the first section and then use the other section(s) how it works best for you.
I love to start my prayer time off with Worship first, so I have everyone at a party place it as the first tab for that reason. Then I go through Confession time for myself (not your spouse’s needs for confession, just yours). I want to practice Listening every day too, so I do that section in the daily part.
Then praying myself is the next top priority in my prayer time. I want to be connected to God, talking to Him about what is needed or wanted in my life. I want to remember who I am in Christ, so that I’m firmly set on Him as my Rock. From there I feel like I’m in a good position to pray for others. In other posts, we talk more about praying for yourself.
So that is usually how I have you set up the first section and the first four tabs. From there, I give a few more tabs in the first section that you choose to pray through daily or with higher priority. Examples are Children, Spouse, Friends or Family.
The next section is set up with the idea of possibly praying through one tab a day. I use bookmarks here to keep track which tab I am in. Sometimes, I really slow down and take a prayer page in each tab and spend the time I need for that page. This can be done in multiple tabs at a time too, using multiple bookmarks.
Hope this helps.
First Section (divided by plastic sheets with inserts) / PRAY DAILY OR MOST OFTEN
- Worship
- Confession
- Listening
- Self
- Family/Friends…
Second Section (tabbed dividers with cardstock) /
PRAY ONE TAB PER DAY OR MORE AS TIME PERMITS
- Church
- Ministries
- Extended Family
- Beyond My Walls/Neighborhood …
Also, as you sorted pages into your tabs, and because there aren’t enough tabs for every page subject, move them around as you see the need. I moved ‘In Need of Healing’ from Friends to Beyond My Walls and then to Ministries.
If you need anything or have questions, go to the Contact Us page and let me know. I also have the whole set of pages on Etsy for download, if you want to do an update.
We have talked about how the battle books were initially set up as a reminder and how it is designed to work. There was a lot going on the day of class in putting a book together. My prayer for you is that you will set a time for prayer and start using your Battle Book to help build consistency in your prayer time. Let me know in the Comments, how you hope to or have made time for prayer each day.
Next, we will discuss three steps for personalizing your Battle Book. Please send any questions that you may have and I’ll get an answer to you. I’ll post a few that may help others in an upcoming post.
See you in the prayer pages!