After a few people enquiring into prayer journals and how on earth do you even go about writing one, this got me thinking how I should answer. I am by no means an expert on these things, all I can say is I keep a prayer journal (albeit I'm not great at writing in it regularly) and I enjoy looking back over past prayers and seeing that even when I do not think God is hearing my prayers, let alone answering them, that He is actually there through it all, just perhaps working differently than from what I had asked.
It's quite an eye-opener to go back over previous prayers because I often find that I do think "God I NEED this to happen" and when it doesn't it's crap. But through a journal you can actually see that well God maybe said no to that prayer but it's because if He had said yes then I probably would have missed out on certain opportunities. God works in the long-term needs as well as the the short-term needs!
So, this is how I would write my journal in response to those who asked and out of interest to anyone thinking of writing one. It's not THE LAW, so it may not necessarily be how you would want to write one but eventually you'll figure out what works for you. I know for example, that my dad keeps a little notebook, and in it he writes a list of names/prayer requests in bullet format and uses it as a guide for who to pray for each night.
Anyway, my problem is that I get too easily distracted. If you are someone whose mind tends to stray off on a tangent "Dear God please be with
I'll find a quiet spot (minimise on the distractions). Keep a note of the date (duh!) and then I'll write down either a verse that I've looked up because I've been thinking about a certain topic, or else (and more likely) I'll use the verse in that day's Word for Today from my Bible notes. Just helps to keep your mind focused but also is helpful to being aware of certain verses.
I did a prayer ministry course and found that the most encouraging night of prayer came when we were told to stand and pray to ourselves praising God, and in that praise allow the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and prayers and as soon as we were told to stop praising to just listen and be lead in prayer. It works! So i just write down my heart's praise for God and then most of the time I follow the whole ACTS thing - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.
I write like I am talking to God, it means that I can see everything I've prayed and it looks less like a shopping list.
On Sunday we had a guest speaker and he made a very good point that profession is different from confession. Profession coming from your mouth, and confession coming from your heart. It's easy to just sit down and say something because you are so used to saying it. Think of how many times you have prayed and said "I'm sorry" but it's more like force of habit than actually a sincere apology. It's about the psychology of it all, writing it down helps you to see what you want forgiveness for right in front of ur face! Since I am not closing my eyes, praying for that person or situation, opening my eyes, quick glance at what's next, closing my eyes again, praying and so on, writing everything down like a letter helps me to connect more with what I am praying. I can go back and see where I was then, and where God has brought me to now.
I dunno, it just seems to work. Give it a go, write down your prayer from "Heavenly Father" to "Amen" and see how you feel about it. Even try it for a week and at the end of the week look back over what you have prayed and see how God is with you through it all answering you as you go!
