Prayer Journals

Now that you have seen a good description of prayer, let’s look at prayer journals. A  prayer journal is simply a written record of your prayer time. I have often kept a prayer journal through the years, especially during those times that I was closest to the Lord and the most intentional with my devotional time and prayer time.

With that in mind, your journal can simply be written in a plain notebook, or you may use a fancy book with tabs and dividers and different lists and divisions or anything in between. It’s not the type of book that matters, but more that you are writing down an account of your prayers.

So, why keep a written prayer journal?

First, as mentioned earlier, a prayer journal keeps a physical account of your conversations with the Lord. You can write down your requests, praises, thanks, answered prayer, etc.

In the second place, a prayer journal helps to keep you faithful and helps you to remember specific people and requests for which you should pray. It’s a tangible record of your conversations with God.  By writing it down and putting the date on each entry, you establish a habit and an intentional commitment in your walk with the Lord. It’s time to pray.

You have an appointment with God, and this is a copy of the minutes from that meeting.

In addition to these reasons, a prayer journal is an account of what God has done in your life. He does good things in your life daily, and consequently, it is easy to lose track of those blessings and lessons. It is a good practice to look back over the past month to see what God has done. Sometimes we pray things, and two or three weeks later we do not even remember that we did so.

Furthermore, a journal is a constant reminder of God’s work in our lives.  What prayers did He answer? And what did He reveal to you in the Scripture? How has He provided for you? How has He protected you? He does many great things for all of us every day, but if we are not writing it down and being intentional in our prayer time, we do not always notice His bountiful care. Again Indeed, it’s time to pray.

As a final point, a prayer journal can be used in conjunction with your devotional and Bible study time. Moreover, not only can you use them separately, but you can also use them together. For that reason, most people who start a prayer journal also use it to record insight from the Scriptures or their Bible studies.

Starting Your Own Prayer Journal

How do you begin your own prayer journal? Plain notebook? Online prayer journals? Phone reminders? Journal apps? What do you write? 

First of all, you should go back to the Lord’s prayer and include those tenets in your prayers. The content of your prayers should praise God and contain petition, supplication, confession, forgiveness, and intercession for others.  Additionally, you should say anything else that you want to say to the Lord. He wants to hear your requests.

After this, look for a notebook that you like. 

It could be very plain or fancy with tabs and dividers. Some come with stickers and 3-d embellishments like the planners that are available now. If you are like me, you like to buy a new, pretty notebook or a journal with all the bells and whistles. Additionally, a new pen and some colored pencils, and a sticker or two, and I am one happy camper! But of course, you do not have to do all of this. I like to pick up a pretty notebook and pens and get to writing. In either case, do what works for you-fancy or plain. Consequently, the purpose of starting a prayer journal is to record our conversations with the Lord. Remember as you do this to, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.”

In the end, just find a notebook or planner that you think will work for you and start writing simple lists and requests at first.  Use the words of Scripture to praise the Lord. Also, use verses to make requests.  Next, be sure to write the dates of your prayers, and possibly leave a column for answers to prayer. Below is a suggested list of days of the week to pray for certain people, places, and things.  With all this in mind, switch it up to make it work for you; then make a prayer list for each day of the week.  To help you further, you may want to keep this list in the front of your journal.