How to Write a Prayer Journal and Why

For years I went through wondering why God only seemed to answer some of my prayers while seemingly leaving others by the wayside. After I began a prayer journal, keeping daily track of my prayers and responses from God, I was amazed at how much I had missed before. It left me wondering how many interactions with God I had missed, and how many opportunities had passed without my seeing God working divinely in my life. Journaling my conversations with God has proven to me how very important that aspect of my life is to keep up with.

A prayer journal is a little different than a regular diary type journal. Although, it is very easy to intertwine the two (I do). The idea behind the prayer journal is to focus on your conversations with God. Daily, write down the prayers you offer up to Him, including praises, desires, and hurts. You are basically writing letters to God and keeping up with them. In fact, you can even write your entries in letter form. The point is to keep up with what you are saying to Him. Though it is very important to write down any prayer requests, the idea is to encompass that but to go beyond that.

When you write down your requests, you can later see how God is working in your life to answer those prayers, either divinely or naturally. Scripture states that when we ask for something in prayer, believing, then it will come to pass (Matthew 21:22). Writing down your praises helps to strengthen your expectancy in having your prayers answered. It focuses your attention on the positive things that God has already done in your life, and helps you understand how truly capable He is at answering your prayer.

Keeping tabs on the hurts, the joys, and the concerns you have during the day also helps strengthen your walk with God. He often uses these things to get our attention or to switch our minds in a new direction. Writing these down along with what caused them, allows us the ability to go back later and see what God is doing in relation to them.

A prayer journal isn't just about writing down your prayers, though. It also includes keeping a daily record of what God is saying to you. God's thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). There are times when God is moving in our lives that may not make sense to us. It isn't until we go back and see from the writing we've done that helps us understand the path that God is taking to pursue a matter, or when He is acting on our behalf. Record conversations, thoughts, ideas, epiphanies, events, and feelings that strike you. No matter how insignificant these things may appear that specific day, they often times add up to something very powerful in the end. Though our patience wears thin, God's does not and most times it takes time for God to move to accomplish a significant thing in our lives. Many times He may be calling you to change the way you think on a matter, or shift your focus. It is impossible to see those things sometimes if we don't record special dealings He has with us daily. We tend to miss them.

In my prayer journal I highlight my requests in yellow, and answered prayer in green. It is amazing how green my journal is becoming. God does answer prayer. He wants to. It is His nature to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11). Keeping a daily record of your conversations with God allows you to see just how faithful He is, and it helps strengthen your faith as well.