Prayer is a spiritual discipline we simply can’t live without.
Through prayer, we express our adoration and affection to God. We make requests or petitions to God. We confess our brokenness to God and ask for forgiveness. We thank God for His presence and work in our life. Through prayer we learn to make our home in Christ no matter what situation we’re facing. [Tweet this]
Yet how often do we offer the well-meaning “I’ll pray for you,” and it slips our mind all too quickly. Or carve time to spend in prayer, but dart to daily to-dos.
I recently stumbled across some incredible apps that will encourage and support you in prayer times. I hope you’ll find them helpful. Consider adding them to your daily Advent devotional— a chance to lift up the requests of others.
Here are the 4 of the Best FREE Prayer Apps:
1. Pray! (FREE in the iTunes App Store). The Pray! app lets you set reminders to notify you of prayer requests. This is a go-to app to set reminders to pray for someone during their surgery, interview, or at any specific time of day. A small banner buzzes at the top of your screen reminding you to lift up others to the throne. This user-friendly application is a must-download.
2. Prayer Prompter (FREE in the iTunes App Store). If you are one to get distracted or lose focus while praying, Prayer Prompter is the application for you. It prompts topics to pray about (worship, adoration, for your spouse, for yourself, etc.). It gives you passage suggestions to read through and pray back to God. All the translations are in NKJV, but you can add your own (a passage that spoke to you, a specific prayer you want to be reminded of).
This app is great when you don’t know how to pray. It’s is a little trickier to navigate, but oh-so-helpful.
3. Instapray (FREE in the iTunes App Store). This app requires you to create an account and gives you an opportunity to pray for people you follow, global requests, or group requests. When a request comes up, you can select “PRAY” to notify that person that you prayed. You can also send them a message of encouragement.
The best feature of this app is the “GROUP” setting. You can create your own private group to share with your small group, church, or family and share prayers and updates instantly. Instapray reminds me of the twitter of prayer; a fun way to connect with brothers and sisters from around the world.
4. Ora (FREE in the iTunes App Store). This is an app similar to Instapray in that you need to log-in to use it. It connects you with people in your contact list. Again, this app can be used to share prayer requests to individuals or private groups. In Ora, you need to be connected to someone via a request to see or share prayers. Instead of seeing a list of global prayer requests, you will only see requests of those people in your circles. Ora is an incredible tool to be used in a Bible study setting where you could upload prayer requests to be reminded throughout the week (even if you missed the meeting).
I’d love to know what you think of these applications. What tools do you use to help in your prayer time?
I’m always struggling to know the best way to get a prayer request out when it comes to Tom. Via text im always worried im going to push someone over their limit. Email they may not soon enough. Phone calls can be exhausting. Recently I’ve used FB messaging but then everyone’s notifications blow up when someone responds. Hmmm, possibly I’m the cause of this post??!! (LOL)
I’m going to check these out Margaret thank you! Continuing to pray for ZERO for you and your dad. Hugs
Instapray and Ora may be a great fit for that, Tara! How awesome that we can use technology to glorify him and deepen our prayer life.
I’m ready to roll on Instapray!!
Thank You and God Bless You
What an awesome opportunity to create unity between prayer worriers for more power and results!
Is there an app that would have all prayer requests (with a photo) that would pop up and be a reminder to pray for them.
So pic of daught pops up – that’s my reminder to pray for her. And the next hour a diff person pops up.
I would select them to be on the rotation from my photos
Polly, I’m not sure if there’s an app that does exactly what you’re describing, but I love that idea!
The information you provided is helpful for users of Apple devices. For those using Android, I was able to find Instapray and ORA in the Google Play store for free download.
Dan– thanks so much for looking into the Google Play store! So helpful!
I used to use the uPray app, and dearly loved it, but they changed their online Unity site, too hard to navigate, won’t let me sign in without a hassle, now the uPray app won’t connect to server. They have lost followers, now will check out your recommendations. Thanks.
I have used Prayer Prompter for sometime, now. I love it as it keeps me focused and helps me remember all those I want to pray for. I love the organizational options and the way you can add about anything you want….from long prayers to scriptures. I highly recommend it!
I’ve only opened it a few times, but I LOVE the idea! Keeps you focused- so awesome!
Thank you Margaret for writing about INSTAPRAY.
Instapray is in constant development and we welcome every feedback we can get.
Your opinion would be very valuable to us.
Dont forget to watch http://www.youtube.com/instapray
Fryd
Fryd, Im a huge fan of Instapray! Been on the app now for a couple of months and absolutely love it! Thank you so much for it! Im no longer using Facebook! 🙂
28572
Pink hill nc
PrayerMate by Andy Geers is also brilliant. Not free, but inexpensive. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prayermate-quiet-time-organiser/id434815549?mt=8
Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion, Phil. We’ll check it out!
Checkout http://www.praytime.me recently released with a timer which you can actually use when praying to God.
Prayformeandmyfamiyandfreinds
Great list! Just wanted to mention that Instapray is unethically taking Pinterest images from other websites and redirecting them to their own site, so their app may not be the best choice from this list. 🙂 Pray on!!
Good to know! Thanks for the heads up, Rachel!
I also found a great app (or email subscription if you prefer) that helps you pray specific prayers for missionaries and the unreached people of the world. It highlights a new missionary team daily and is simple – very easy to use. It’s called Nations Prayer and free in the App store.
Try the OurPrayer app! –> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ourprayer/id631623827.
You can submit prayer requests, schedule prayer reminders, pray for others and lot of other things.
Daily prayer request
Great list, Margaret. Thanks for sharing! I’m on the Abide team and came across this article when searching for prayer apps. Abide is another prayer app that has audio-recorded prayers. We’re in both the apple and android store. Feel free to check us out! abide.is/awesome?ref=posts
So exciting! Thanks for sharing, Joanna!
Awesome list. Another great one to include is Prayer Coach. It guides you through an audio-based prayer session based on comprehensive prayer libraries. There are a bunch of ministries that are building prayer libraries for our platform and we are excited with the phenomenal growth. Find out more at http://www.prayer.coach
That sounds really special. Thanks for passing that along!
It doesn’t look like Instapray or Ora are available anymore. Is that true or is it just me? I have been searching for a long time today for an app that I can use for my small group to share our requests in a simple way. Any ideas?????
Hi, I found this app which is very good. Every day there’s a different prayer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=letuspray.daily.prayers&hl=en
There’s also a daily reminder to help me to remember to pray God in my busy life. Super!
Please pray that God will give us victory in court on 28th March.
Nicholas & Edith
Hello Margaret,
You may also be interested in Christian Prayer Power for iPhone and Android. It lets people create a private prayer circle by selecting people from their phone’s contact list; those selected get an SMS invitation and if they accept then you’re connected. So people can send out private prayer requests to those they care about, get private responses, see who’s praying with you, and get a daily inspiration. It’s free unlimited use for 30 days and then a small monthly subscription if you want to keep using it. Lots of pastors and prayer leaders are starting to use the app to connect with their flocks and with other groups.
Great addition! Thanks, Allan!
There’s another one which is really great for groups. It’s audio-based but I’ve been using it with my small group for the past while and we really feel connected through sending and receiving audio prayers: PrayerMail (www.prayermail.co) for iOS and Android.
Thank you for sharing!
Do any of these apps allow for sharing prayer requests for a small group?
My store says Instapray is not available. Anyone know more?
thatprayerapp.com is a new one 😉 It tracks prayer statistics as well.
The Bible Study Together prayer app is a full quiet time suite and it’s free! It allows you to start a group for reading the Bible and praying together. The app can do all the normal prayer features like storing and organizing lists of prayers, but it also has the intelligent prayer assistant that helps you stay focused while praying without watching the clock. You can learn more and get the app here:
https://biblestudytogether.com/prayer-app/