My Take on Prayer Journaling

Since I shared about how I read my Bible during my daily personal study, I thought I'd also share how I spend time in prayer. Now, this is not the only time I pray throughout the day. It's important to pray when a need arises, before you go to bed, you know, continually. However, I do find that having an organized way of praying with my study helps keep me accountable and I feel more effective. I'm not a superfluous prayer so my method is pretty straight forward (which also helps me to not get distracted). So here it is.

What I Write In
I've had this particular journal cover since December 24, 2008. How do I know the exact date? Because it's how my husband proposed to me. I've had several blank journal refills inside it over the years, but obviously this cover has sentimental value for me. I don't want to have to continue to buy a nice new journal every time I finish one, although some people like to do that. This has worked pretty well for me.

How I Write In It
I've used several methods for prayer journaling over the years. I used to write out my prayers like a letter to God. I still will on occasion, especially if something big is weighing on my mind. Obviously, this can take quite a bit of time. Currently I just used bulleted lists of what I want to pray about as a guide and then I pray through them like normal. A conversation with God. It's probably not "journaling" in the strictest sense, but it helps me keep track of my prayers and it helps me stay focused.

What I Write About

My prayer is broken up into 3 main sections:

One section is where I pull out something I've learned from the Scripture I'm currently reading. For example, today I read Isaiah 52. Verse 7 says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" So I prayed to be those feet and to be given an opportunity to share the good news with someone today. Essentially, this is where I pray Scripture back to God. I don't write it down, but this is also when I pray for God to forgive my sins. It's important to be specific, but I don't write them down because once He's forgiven me, I (try to) move past them.

The next section contains my prayer requests. One thing I like to do is focus on something different each day. Now that's not all I can pray about that day, but it helps my prayer time to not be so rambling. I pray for my immediate family every day and anything else that feels urgent, but a lot of the time I spend praying is focused on these categories.

The final section contains praises for what God has done. This is one benefit of journaling. I can look back through my past prayer requests and see how God has answered them. God has done so much for me, and this helps remind me of that.

Once I've written everything down I just pray through my list. Sometimes stuff pops into my mind which of course I'll pray about then, but this focused time of prayer has really made my time with the Lord so much better. What about you? How do you pray during your quiet times?