5 Ways Prayer Journaling Can Change Your Life

I know what it means to “pray without ceasing” and have practiced that type of prayer for as long as I can remember. Throughout the day as worry surfaces or a friend makes a request, I talk to God about it immediately. It’s the kind of praying that’s usually silent and on the go, in the midst of other duties. I’ve found this kind of prayer to be a comforting reminder that God is always with me.

But “praying on the go” should never take the place of regular, solitary time in prayer. Prayer journaling has become a vital part of my prayer time and deepening my relationship with God. Here’s what I’ve learned.

5 WAYS PRAYER JOURNALING CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

5 Ways Prayer Journaling Can Change Your Life

One:  Release Your Worry

I have a sheet labeled “requests” for each day. I make a bullet list of worries, needs, and requests as they come to my mind throughout the day or in my prayer time. Writing them down signifies that I’m giving them to God. The weight lifts as I let go of problems I can’t fix, questions I can’t answer, and circumstances I don’t understand, to The All-Wise God who sees and cares.

Two: Receive Specific Answers to Prayer

The more specifically I pray, the more I see God’s specific answers. Our Father is faithful to provide everything we need and so much more, but often times we miss seeing it as a blessed provision from Him. By being more specific with my requests to Him, and writing them down, I’m able to look back and see how He was at work, even when I thought nothing was happening! Remembering Jesus’ question for the blind man helps me as I formulate my requests. “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51) Certainly, the Messiah already knew exactly what the blind man needed and wanted but He sought a connection through conversation with a man who couldn’t see His face. He wants the same with you and me.

Three:  Glorify God

As God began changing me and my prayer life, He showed me how I had been “hedging my bets” in prayer. I’d lapsed into praying simple and general prayers that I felt certain were in His will and would be answered. He wanted more from me. He wanted me to have faith like a child who wouldn’t hesitate to ask for anything and trusted Him to do what was best. As my prayer time becomes more intimate and my prayers get bolder, I see God working in ways that I could’ve never asked or imagined. More and more, I come to see how faithful and trustworthy He is.

Four: Gain a Testimony

As I experience God in a deeper way, words of His goodness and faithfulness flow. Like Peter and John in Acts 4:20, “We cannot help but speak of what we’ve seen and heard.” Several months ago as I was praying for my children, I sensed the Spirit prompting me to pray for a certain type of relationship for my young adult daughter who was about to move several hours from home. The request was very specific and a bit out of my comfort zone. Not long after I journaled this prayer, she called to tell me about a new relationship in her life and described it with the very words written in my journal. I told her it was an answer to prayer, opened my notebook to the day it was recorded, and read the prayer-words to her. God already knew what He was planning and lovingly invited me to see His glory through prayer and the provision. Together we praised God for His faithfulness!

Five: Leave a Legacy

One day your family will sort through the pieces of your life. They’ll laugh and cry and learn a lot about you that they didn’t already know! (I speak from experience having lost both parents and my father-in-law in the last few years.) But what if your regular, solitary time with the Lord in prayer is recorded with pen on paper for them—and future generations—to see. What a legacy of faith and hope you could leave behind that would mean more to them than any inheritance ever could!

God, may we always cry out to you, because you fulfill our purposes.

 

I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. 

Psalm 57:2

I hope I’ve encouraged you in your prayer life! Be sure to check out Prayer Power: Tips and Techniques for Connecting with God. To learn more about the prayer journaling method I use read Becky Tirabassi’s book Let Prayer Change Your Life. Click here for a list of my favorite books on prayer.

 


Would you like to spend more time focusing on God’s Word and applying His truth?

Download the R.A.W. Scripture Study Method calendar to study the word for yourself and join our M2B Tribe Facebook Group, where we are studying key verses, like the one shared in this post, each week.

R.A.W. Scripture Study Method

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