App Review: PrayerMate

Most of us want to pray more faithfully, but we can often feel overwhelmed, distracted, and discouraged.

PRAYERMATE:
Apple/Android
Free

How often do we say: ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and then just forget? As Don Carson says: ‘Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray’. One solution to the disconnect between intention and reality is PrayerMate.

Simply put, the app takes the idea of prayer lists and digitises it. Users create a series of categories (e.g. ‘church’, ‘family’, ‘evangelism’, ‘world’), before creating prayer ‘cards’ for each category. Every time you open the app you begin a new ‘prayer session’ and get a new selection of cards to swipe (and pray!) through.

Facilitating faithful prayer

Created by Englishman Andy Geers, PrayerMate launched in 2011 and has become one of the most popular ‘non-Bible’ apps in the UK. Notable commendations from Tim Challies and Paul Tripp have encouraged a growing US user-base too. PrayerMate has now reached 430,000 total downloads, with 30,000 monthly users from around 125 countries – equating to some 1.5 million prayer items a month!

There are some great features: attach a photo/PDF prayer-letter to a card; track answered prayer through ‘threading’ a card’s changes over time; add an event reminder to a card; form a Share Group with friends to share and sync privately. Over 500 churches and organisations (including Operation World and Open Doors) release a PrayerMate ‘prayer feed’, allowing you to subscribe and automatically stay up-to-date.

It takes a few minutes to get accustomed to PrayerMate’s set-up and edit the template prayer list, but it’s a fairly intuitive interface and simple to add/edit. As such, it’s not uncommon to hear people say PrayerMate has ‘revolutionised’ their praying. Generously, since 2014, Geers’ Discipleship Tech organisation has made PrayerMate free!

Obviously, an app can’t do the praying for you, but PrayerMate offers a really focused, accessible and editable digital system for praying intentionally for others. Give it a go!

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A version of this article was first published here in the November Issue of Evangelicals Now and is shared here with permission. EN is a monthly newspaper published in print and online, offering a biblical perspective on current issues and insight on what’s happening with God’s people worldwide. Online subscription is just £10 p/a with print & online combined for just £18. Order a free sample or subscribe here.