Prayer Journals

My spiritual life is very important to me. I am a Christian and am actively trying to live my life according to what the Bible teaches.

I’ve mentioned before that I have not been super great at bringing my concerns and problems to God because I have a natural tendency to take care of things on my own. And after many emotional and trying times, I have come to realization that I need God to intervene in my life way more often than I ever imagined.

Upon that realization I decided that I needed to get my prayer life in check. At that time, I was only praying if I remembered and that wasn’t very often. So I decided to work prayer into my routine so that it would become second nature to me. I figured that praying before bed would help ease my mind and relax me, so I chose that to be my prayer time.

As you can imagine, that didn’t work out well for me. Most of the time I would go to bed without remembering to pray and on the nights that I did remember, I would fall asleep mid prayer or lose my train of thought. It was basically an all-out failure.

I knew that bettering my prayer life was going to be crucial to my relationship with God and would ultimately bring me closer to Him, so I was not willing to give up.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a love of writing. I have started short stories, novels, this blog, and my fair share of journals. So I made the choice to combine my love of writing with my prayers. I got an old notebook that I hadn’t even begun to use and made it my prayer journal.

In the beginning it was incredibly difficult for me to remember to use my prayer journal, and I eventually would make time for it in my daily planner so that I wouldn’t forget. But as I continued to get better at using it, I realized that I was actually starting to seek it out, outside of my scheduled prayer time.

Now, I (just about) daily write down my prayers to God. It keeps me focused and engaged and the act of writing allows my brain to completely communicate my thoughts with God in a way I was unable to do when I wasn’t using the journal. Plus, there is the added bonus of being able to go back into your old prayers and see where God has given you answers.

It’s an amazing experience.

Of course, this is just my experience and personal preference. If enhancing your walk with God is on your priority list, take some time and find a way that works for you. Understand that there will be trial and error, but your diligence will pay off.