Prayer Stations

Preparation

You will need eight separate spaces. Make it work by using the hallway and dividing up rooms. You will also use a bathroom with mirrors for one of these activities. Set up the prayer stations before women arrive.

Invite the women to meet in the chapel where the lights are low and candles have been lit to help them experience quiet and rest. Open in prayer.

Pass out the prayer station booklets and instruct the women to choose a station they want to begin with. They can work through them in any way that feels comfortable, taking as long as they like in each station. It is not important to finish all the stations but to take time to listen to God’s leading. After the allotted time, invite anyone who would like to share during the prayer time what God has put on their heart. Before asking the women to visit the various prayer station, share the following.

Scripture and Thought

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28–30). Do you hear Him? Jesus is urging you to enter into His rest. He is waiting for you to lay your burdens at His feet and remain with Him. For this hour, allow yourself to stop comparing yourself to others. Stop the self-judgment and interior critique that is so common for women. Tonight, we are going to be gentle with ourselves as we lean into our Father, who loves us with such tender mercy.

Station 1- Burdens – Chapel

Supplies needed: backpacks with heavy books—some smooth stones. A couple of sharpies are on the holiness table. These rocks represent the women laying down their burdens.

Give your burdens to the LORD, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall (Ps 55:22). We are not meant to carry our burdens on our own, yet we continuously pick them up, determined to power through them on our own. Or we fear burdening others. We often give it to God for time, only to take it back up again. At the station, try picking up one of the backpacks. If you can, walk the hallway quietly with it. While you are walking, notice how quickly the weight of it seems to get bigger. Pray and ask God what burdens you carry around that He wants you to give Him or ask for His help.

Station 2 – Appreciation

Hallway. Use half-size posterboards and have a variety of colored sharpies for women to leave their messages for one another.

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15). In the hallway, you will find the names of your fellow sisters in Christ. Please take a moment to walk the hall and stop at each name. Offer an intentional prayer for each one, and after that prayer, please write a word of encouragement to that woman on her poster board. At the end of this time, each woman can take home words of encouragement with the knowledge that they have been prayed for intentionally.

Station 3 – Self Worth

Station Three – bathroom. Have scripture verses stuck to the mirrors (Suggested scriptures are listed below.) Invite the women to add their verses.

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling. There is no flaw in you.” (Song of Songs 4:7). This one won’t be easy. Take some time and look in the mirror. Look at your eyes, your nose, your lips, your cheeks, the way your ears are set, how high or low your forehead, your hair—curly, straight, fine, thick, dark hair, grey hair, thinning? Take it all in. What do you tell yourself immediately? What messages about your image do you whisper to yourself? What about your reflection keeps you from whispering the word beauty when you see yourself? Write down a comment or two that you tell yourself on one of the post-it notes and stick it on the mirror. When did you forget you are God’s masterpiece? Formed and created in your mother’s womb by His perfect design. When you look at yourself, read the scripture verse attached to the mirror and pray for God to help restore your vision to see yourself as He sees you: beautiful and without flaw. You are His beloved daughter.

Station 4 – Promises of God

A table with chairs. Place a list of God’s promises to His people that we find in the Bible, along with papers with individual scripture. (A list of God’s promises is available at https://garmentsofsplendor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/100-promises-printable.pdf.)

“Blessed be the Lord, who has given to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant” (1 Kings 8:56). The Bible contains 8,810 promises of God to His people. That is a huge number. What a wonderful God to make so many promises to us and to keep them all. One Bible scholar is quoted as saying, “the genius of the Gospel is that everyone can share in the Promises through Christ. God’s Son, Jesus. At this station, take some time to look around the table at some of the promises of God. Take time with one of them that jumps out at you. Pray over it. How do you think this promise applies or will apply to your life? Is there something He wants you to do? Believe? Confess? Keep the paper with the verse to pray over. At the same time, you are at the station, draw or write a word on the poster board to represent your response to His promise!

Station 5 – Thanksgiving

Set up a table. No chairs are necessary. Place grain in a beautiful bowl, and provide small cloth pouches and paper hearts for women to write what they are grateful for. Affix the hearts to a wall.

When Joseph’s brothers were starving, they went to Egypt to get grain for their families. Today we are nourished not only by food but also by our faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us in John 6:35 that “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” At this station, touch the grain and think about what sustains you in your life. What do you need? Whom do you depend on? As you pour the grain into a pouch, reflect on how you are nourished. Take the pouch with you to remind you of Christ’s love.

In return, leave behind a paper heart with words to represent those grains in your life that you are grateful for and add them to the wall of gratitude.

Station 6 – Confession

A cross in a quiet corner.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Approach the cross in this station. Take some time to show reverence for what the cross represents. Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice and death on the cross. There He paid the price for all of our sins. And the incredible thing is that He would do it all just for you. He took your sins so that you would not suffer the full consequence of those sins. He paid your price.

Are there things you are holding on to and must confess to Him? Never be afraid to tell your Father where you feel you have stumbled or fallen short. One thing we can always ask ourselves is, have I loved enough? Take a few minutes and pray this prayer from Psalm 139:23, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” After you pray, notice if there is anything that jumps out at you. Write down one word to represent each of those offensives, then attach them to the cross and know that He has already forgiven you. He loves you so much!

Station 7 – Family Tree

Table and chairs, colored pencils or markers, and printed outlines of a tree. https://www.printablee.com/post_tree-branches-with-printable-pattern_263061

“But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me” (Ruth 1:16-17). At this station, you will find the outline of a tree. Take the time to fill the root, trunk, and branches with the names of the people you want to pray for in your family. If you feel led, add a word or two to represent what you are praying about. Hold on to this sheet, take it out during your daily devotional time, and continue praying for your family. Your family is part of God’s lineage, and it is so important that we keep our families covered in prayer.

Station 8 – Rest

Beautifully set the table (with chairs), jars of candy and small treat bags—adult coloring pages and crayons.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). In the life of busy women, self-care is not an option. Let me say it louder for those in the back SELF CARE IS NOT AN OPTION. It is essential to learn how to rest when we need rest, to feed ourselves spiritually, spend time with other women, and practice whatever self–care works for you. Do not neglect self-care or relegate the time you have left over. Put it on your calendar, and make it a priority. You can only pour from a full cup. So. at this station, take some time and fill your cup (literally). Sit at the beautifully decorated table, fill your cup with the special treats, and sit, color if you want, and chill! You are a beloved daughter of the King of Kings.

Scriptures on Women’s Dignity and Beauty

• “I am Beautiful.” You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you. (Song of Songs 4:7)
• She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. (Prov. 31:25)
• You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. Isa. 62:3
• My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. (Song of Songs 2:10)
• She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. (Prov. 31:26)
• Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. (Ps. 34:5)
• You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! (Ps. 139:13-16)
• Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. (Psalm 139:13 – 14)
• For we are God’s masterpiece… (Eph. 2:10)
• “I am Valuable.” …Created to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10)
• Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! (Lu. 1:45)
• God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at the break of day. (Ps. 46:5)
• And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. (1 Pet. 5:10)
• And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? (Es. 4:14)
• But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1 Peter 2:9)
• For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil. 3:2o)
• But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. (1 Sam 16:7)
• Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Mt. 5:8)
• Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12:27)
• You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. (1 Cor. 6:20)
• “I am Created as Beloved, and Christ Lives in me.”
• She is worth far more than rubies (Prov. 31:10).
• But by the grace of God, I am what I am (1 Cor. 15:10).
• See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands … (Is. 49:16).
• I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2:20).
• And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:18).
• For in Christ Jesus you are all sons (and daughters) of God, through faith (Gal. 3:26).
• …the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).
• I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).
• Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you  (1 Cor. 15:58).
• But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).
• For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
• And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).
• So, God created mankind in His own image… (Gen. 1:27).