1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
“Rejoice always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
From the very first day, my adventure in prayer journaling was a rich experience, a season that lasted for almost twenty-five years. It offered a much-needed discipline for my prayer life at a time when our family was going through a lot of critical changes: my husband’s retirement from the Navy and entrance into the civilian workforce; the transition from high school to college for our daughters; a painful departure from a church we loved which led to our becoming a part of a small group of families starting a new church.
During the years that followed, my prayer journaling became an essential part of my Christian walk as the Lord carried me through a major move to another house, my mother’s terminal illness, a prodigal daughter, Bible study leadership, and the establishment of a tea business. In prayer I interceded, pleaded, cried, praised, celebrated and gave thanks.
Many have asked me why I feel it is so helpful to use a prayer journal. The following are my thoughts on the value of using one and some ideas for getting started.
First, when you put your thoughts on paper, you are capturing a record of your prayer life, your emotions, desires, and pleadings. You are putting your perspective into words that help you understand and define yourself. By writing you can see how the Spirit moves in your heart. You connect more intensely to God and to who He has created you to be.
Second, it gives you a record of prayer requests and how God demonstrates His faithfulness in answered prayer. It’s great to be able to look back from time to time to see what God has done. When you come against an obstacle you can refer to those times to see your record of God’s provision and pray, “Lord, I know Your promises are true because You have shown Your faithfulness when you answered my prayer and provided a way (insert your memory)…
There are various formats to journaling your prayers and the first one I used was to create sections in my notebook with the following headers written on tabs: “Immediate Family,” “Extended Family,” “Church,” “Neighborhood” and “Country.” That left the days of the weekend to pray more generally or for recurring or prolonged prayer needs. Once that book was full I moved on to a daily prayer format, page by page. When my mother was critically ill, I set that journal aside and wrote in one dedicated for that period of time until her passing, then resumed with the other notebook. It’s wonderful to have a record of the extraordinary ways God revealed Himself to me in that season of praying.
The books in varying sizes, shapes and colors, fill a shelf in my sitting room. Every once in awhile I pull one out to find a particular story or illustration. Opening it carefully, I see the front page where I had the habit of making a long list of prayer requests in abbreviations. There in big letters, I see “PTL!” written beside each request—a record of the faithfulness of God.
With the profound impact the pandemic has had on all of our lives, I sensed that the Lord was calling me into another season of prayer journaling. It is taking a while to get back into the habit but I am determined to keep at it so that one day I can look back at this time to see the relentless faithfulness of our mighty God. His relentless faithfulness was on full display last week with the momentous ruling from the Supreme court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. After decades of praying, I will finally be able to write in big letters, “PTL!!”
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for your Word which encourages us to pray without ceasing and to give thanks in all circumstances. We acknowledge that our prayer life is important to our relationship with You. Whether we choose to journal or sit quietly to lift our requests, praises and thanksgivings, hear our prayers, O God, and as the Psalmist said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.” In Your faithful name we pray. Amen.
