How To Create A Christian Prayer Room and Use It

Last updated: June19, 2026

The idea of a Christian prayer room originated from what Jesus said in

Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (KJV)

Definition of a Christian Prayer Room

A prayer closet is a physical space dedicated for the purpose of spending an extended amount of time of prayer. Prayer is an action that reaches into the spiritual realm, so another, more recent term for prayer room is “war room.” This term for a prayer closet is based on the act of spiritual wrestling, according to:

Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (KJV)

A Christian prayer room is usually a small room, or it could be also a part of a room, a dedicated space, a specific area, any quiet space in your home, or even a special chair in your own living room, which is set aside for the purpose of uninterrupted — and secret — prayer time. This time of prayer is usually accompanied with Bible reading and Bible study.

Depending on your personal and present living arrangement, this dedicated prayer space may or may not be a small room. In fact, you may not have any space in your entire house for a dedicated prayer room.

One very busy mother, without the luxury of a single room for prayer, made sure she had a personal prayer closet. Her prayer room was to simply sit down, pull her apron over her head, and pray. This act gave her a private space to pray. Her whole family knew that when they saw Mother sitting in that position, she was alone with God, and she was not to be disturbed.

Ideas for Decorating Your Prayer Closet

The decorations in your physical prayer room will be as unique as you. All that you decide to add to this special place should be focused on helping you to focus on prayer for an extended period of time. For this reason, your prayer room décor should not be distracting.

In fact, it is a good idea to make your prayer closet an electronic and screen-free zone. Other practical ideas for your private space to pray would be floor lamps to provide proper lighting, wall art with Scripture verses, and even a vinyl wall decal with a favorite Bible verse that is related to prayer, praise, or the worship of God.

Prayer Board/Wall

When considering prayer room décor, a great way to focus your thoughts and organize your prayer requests is to make a prayer board. Some people prefer to make a prayer wall. Whatever you decide to call it, this is a place where you can keep a visual list of at least some of your prayer requests.

The picture above is my friend Lindsey’s prayer wall. She has pictures of missionaries, scriptures and personal prayer requests.

Your personal prayer board could be a bulletin board or even a poster board, where you would place photos of people to remind you to pray for them daily. These pictures could be old and new friends, family members, church family, missionaries, your pastor, and even political leaders, all as visual reminders for you to pray for the lives represented by the faces on your prayer board.

Personally, I don’t have a prayer board. I have a prayer list where I list people and things I want to pray about on a daily basis. This is what works for me.

For people who are more visual, a prayer board or even prayer cards may be a better reminder. You can make your own prayer cards with various requests as a reminder to pray about particular needs and desires.

A prayer board is also a great place to add pictures or even notes that convey your own personal goals that you wish to accomplish. These particular pictures or descriptions will remind you to pray and ask God for His daily help and direction as you work to accomplish your goals.

I do have a small poster next to my desk in my “office” where I have pictures of things I would like to accomplish. That is my personal version of a prayer board.

With these goals, you can also add related Scriptures verses to remind you of God’s promises as you seek to serve Him in the way that He desires from you. Next to my “prayer board” I have a Scripture verse to encourage me of God’s promises when I feel discouraged.

Prayer Journal

A prayer board does not have to be an actual wall decoration. If your prayer closet is not a room at all, or if you are not a visual person, you could organize or compile your prayer requests. It could simply be a notebook where you keep your prayer list, a prayer journal to record your praises and handwrite your prayers to God, or a notebook in which to write your goals and pray about them daily.

Depending on your personal preference, your prayer journal could even be a scrapbook of pictures. As you look at the pictures, pray for what they represent. You can use scrapbook prayer journal method for praying for famous people, family members, things you want to accomplish, friends and their needs.

I found a video on prayer by a lady by Jane Grafton. Here she presents a way of praying using 3×5 cards! If you like her method, you can certainly utilize this method of prayer in your own war room. I hope this video will be a blessing to you as it was to me. Enjoy and learn. Click here to watch her on YouTube.

Bible Study in Your Prayer Room

Prayer and God’s Word go together.  It is good, and necessary, to build up our Christian faith, and pray on a daily basis — regardless of whether or not we have a “war room.”

But prayer, without hearing God’s voice, which is revealed through His Word, is a one-sided conversation. We also need to allow God to speak to us. Adding some sort of Bible study to your prayer closet discipline is an excellent way to incorporate Scriptures and pray God’s promises into your own situations.

What A Christian Prayer Room is NOT

Creating a Christian prayer room, no matter how large or small, expensive or frugal, pretty or plain, will not make you an instantaneous prayer warrior where you can enter, pray, and then come out and all that you asked for inside of your prayer closet will have immediately materialized! A prayer room is not a magic box.

While the idea of a dedicated, quite space reserved for the practice of spending devotional time with Christ, and seeking God’ presence, is a good idea, and even commanded by Jesus Himself, if you don’t already have a daily practice of praying, a prayer room will be useless.

Jesus Christ did not have His own prayer room. He did not even have a place to lay His head, according to

Matthew 8:20 – “And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” (KJV)

But Jesus Himself had a private prayer life.

“And he [Jesus] withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” (Luke 5:16) (KJV)

While having your own private, prayer room is a good idea, the first thing to consider before thinking about a prayer room is to make sure you have developed the discipline of a personal, private, and daily prayer practice.

5 Steps to Set Up Your Christian Prayer Room

Here are 5 steps to set up your own prayer room. Or if you prefer, you can call it your War Room!

Step 1- Choose Your Space

Your Christian prayer room does not need to be an entire room. Any quiet, private space can become a dedicated prayer closet — you can choose a corner of your bedroom, a walk-in closet, a spare bathroom, or even a comfortable chair by a window. What matters most is that it is a place where you can consistently and most importantly privately, meet with God without distraction. Jesus simply said to “enter into thy closet” in Matthew 6:6 — the size of the space is far less important than the intention behind it.

Step 2 – Remove Distractions

Before you add anything to your prayer space, first remove anything that would pull your attention away from God. This means silencing your phone (the best practice is to keep you phone OUT of your personal war room!), turning off notifications, and if possible, closing the door. Your prayer room should feel like a sanctuary — a place set apart from the noise and demands of daily life.

Step 3 – Add Your Bible and Other Books

The most essential items in any Christian prayer room is your Bible. Other related books could be a prayer journal, a Bible study book, perhaps even a hymnbook. Your Bible is how God speaks to you, and your prayer journal is where you record your prayers, God’s answers, and the Scripture verses He lays on your heart. Keeping a written record of answered prayers and praises as well as gratitude to God, is one of the most faith-building habits a Christian can develop.

Step 4- Create a Prayer Wall or Prayer Board

Similar to your prayer journal, a prayer board or prayer wall is a visual display of the people and things you are praying for. You can use a simple bulletin board, a piece of poster board or place photos directly on a section of your wall. Place photos of loved ones missionary prayer cards for a visual reminder of faces for those who you are praying for. This visual reminder of your prayer requests helps keep your prayer time focused and purposeful.

Step 5 – Make It A Habit

The most beautifully decorated prayer room will do nothing for your spiritual life or for your prayer time if you never use it. Set a specific time each day to enter your prayer space — morning, evening, or whenever works best for your personal schedule. Start with just 10–15 minutes if you are new to a dedicated prayer habit. When life throws you a curve ball, make prayer, and time in your prayer room, more frequent. Eventually, your prayer room, the place you have set aside to meet privately to talk with God, will become the place you look forward to most in your day.

My Christian Prayer Room – “Prayer Chair”

I am going to personally tell you what I do in my Christian prayer room. And I will share this not because I think I am the greatest Christian and everyone should follow my example! Rather, I truly believe our prayer life, and all that is associated with it, will be and is an unique as we are!

In my living room, I have a chair. There is do my personal devotions. I do it at night. I am so NOT a morning person. When I awake, I pray briefly, and I pray throughout the day briefly. But at night, I end the day with a time of concentrated prayer and Bible reading. Here is a picture of my “prayer chair”.

And you can see I am not the greatest housekeeper…. But in this picture, you will see my stand with my prayer books and my Bible. In the white container, I have dried cranberries. Sometimes I like a snack when I am here. Other times I have a drink; lemonade or occasionally hot chocolate.

My “prayer book” consists of a small spiral notebook, which cost me $1.00 from the local dollar store. I keep it with my Bible and in that, I write out my prayers to God. I got into this habit when I felt my mind wandering during my prayer time. In my “prayer book” I also have a prayer list of people and things I pray about regularly.

I also have another notebook which I call my Praise Journal. I try to write every day a few things for which I am grateful to God for. There I write thanks, answers to my prayers and praise to God. Again, this is just a notebook I picked up at the store.

I ask God to speak to me through His Word and then I read a few chapters of my Bible. I try to read through my Bible every year. Check out my downloads for a systemic way to read through the Bible in a year.

In the evening, I am usually alone. Either my husband is at work, or he is on the computer in another room. This is my personal habit. What I do and how I use my prayer time is my personal habit. My habit may not be yours. And it shouldn’t. You need to create a time and a place which works for you. Personally, I would like to get up early and start my day with this habit – but I don’t. I am not a morning person.

Here is a Bible lesson on prayer for adults that you can study in your own personal prayer room.

---

Frequently Asked Questions About Christian Prayer Rooms

Here are some FAQs about a Christian prayer room.

What is a Christian prayer room?
A Christian prayer room — also called a prayer closet or war room — is a dedicated space set apart for private prayer, Bible reading, and communion with God. The concept comes from Matthew 6:6, where Jesus instructed His followers to enter their closet and pray to the Father in secret. A prayer room can be an entire spare room, a walk-in closet, or simply a quiet corner of your home reserved for time with God.

What should I put in a Christian prayer room?
The most important items in a Christian prayer room are your Bible and a prayer journal. Beyond those essentials, many Christians also include a prayer board or prayer wall with photos and names of people they are praying for, missionary prayer cards, Scripture verses written out or printed, a hymnal or worship music, and a comfortable place to sit or kneel. The goal is to create a space that draws your heart toward God, not to fill it with decorations.

What is the difference between a prayer room and a war room?
The terms are often used interchangeably. A war room emphasizes the spiritual warfare aspect of prayer — the idea drawn from Ephesians 6:12 that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers.” A war room prayer space typically includes a prayer wall with specific, targeted prayers written out, and is approached with an attitude of spiritual battle and intercession. A prayer room is a broader term for any dedicated space used for regular prayer and Bible study.

What is a prayer closet in the Bible?
In Matthew 6:6, Jesus said “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.” The word “closet” in the King James Bible refers to a private inner room — a place of seclusion and intimacy, away from public view. Jesus was not commanding a literal closet but rather a private, personal prayer life that is not performed for others to see.

How do I start a prayer room at home on a budget?
You do not need to spend money to create a Christian prayer room. Start with whatever quiet space you have available, your Bible, and a simple notebook as a prayer journal. A free printout of a Scripture verse taped to the wall, a small candle, or a comfortable chair from another room are all you need to get started. The most important investment is not money but time — committing to show up in that space regularly and meet with God.

How long should I spend in my prayer room each day?
There is no set requirement for how long you should pray. Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 as a model. And it takes less than a minute to recite. But Jesus Himself at one time in His earthly ministry spent an entire night in prayer – talking with His heavenly Father – see Luke 6:12. What matters is consistency and sincerity rather than length. You should see that meeting God and talking to Him in your prayer room is meeting and communing with a dear and trusted Friend. Many Christians start with 10–15 minutes of focused prayer and Bible reading and gradually extend that time as the habit grows. Your goal is quality communion with God, not a specificed time quota.

About the Author

Sharing is caring!