Prayer Journaling

Today I'm participating in a blog carnival over on the blog Rocks in My Dryer. It's a weekly event called "Works for Me Wednesday"-- so this is my "works for me" tip!

I have always been a journaler. I loved keeping a diary when I was in middle school, although I don't remember WHAT I wrote in it. When I was in my mid-teens I started using a journal/diary to record my thoughts, particularly things I was learning in Scripture and things I was praying about. I also recording happenings of my day.

For some reason after I got married my journaling kinda fizzled out. Whatever the reason, I have one journal that has 4 years worth of entries--because I only journaled once every couple of months. It made me sad that I couldn't get back into the groove. I just wasn't very good about keeping my thoughts organized in prayer unless I was writing it down, so I knew that I needed to start journaling regularly again. Also, writing it down helped me think of things I wouldn't necessarily think about when my thoughts were jumping around so quickly in my head!!

Several months ago I attended a women's ministry event on prayer journaling. The speaker was an ordinary person--a bank teller, wife, empty-nester--who was just sharing what works for her with prayer journaling. That night we made cute little prayer journals, and I have been loosely following her method to get me back into journaling, and I have been loving it!

It starts with the word PRAISE as an ackronym - Praise, Repentance, Acknowledge, Intercession, Supplication, Exercise. In each of these steps, you just write out what you're thinking or saying to God. There is no perfect length--every step may be 1 sentence or 1 page depending on your day.

Praise - Talk to God about who He IS. Psalm 9 is a good place to start if you need some prompting on some things in God's character. I also printed myself a list of God's Names and some days I just pick one or two and reflect on that element of God's character.

Repentance - Once you have God's flawless character laid out on the table, you will inevitibly see areas of your life where you need forgiveness. Write to God about it, and ask him for forgiveness. Be specific. Ask God to reveal things to you.

Acknowledge - The easiest way to explain this step is with a fill-in sentence: "Because You are ______, I can be ________." Usually this sentence will be related to things you have written in the last two steps. "Because you are a forgiving God, I can be forgiviving to my friend." or "Because you are the Creator God, I can be confident you are in control."

Intercession - This is a big word the means "praying for others". We're all familiar with this one--pray for people who are sick, people who need guidance, people who are lost.

Supplication - This is praying for yourself. For your needs, questions, desires. Because you recognized God's character FIRST, your own needs just fall into place--you recognize that God is going to take care of you, and that maybe some of the things you thought you wanted are not necessary.

Exercise - This is where you say, "What now?" What do I do with what I have learned? Is there anything specific on which God wants me to take action?

I don't stick with this formula every day, because sometimes I just feel the need to brain dump. But it helps to keep my thoughts in a certain order--mainly, remembering WHO God is first and foremost.

It's neat to see how God speaks to me through my journaling. I'll be just writing things out, and as I'm writing something will become so clear! One day it was particularly evident when I sensed God was telling me to do something specific. I wrote out, "But God, I'm scared. What if I'm a total failure? I don't know if I can do this." The next thing I read was something to the effect of "Don't fear." (I wish I could remember the specifics, and I can't find this page in my journal! Too many pages to flip through!) There was no doubt that was God speaking directly to me--almost audibly! It gave me chills and I just thanked God for the gift of journaling so that I could hear his voice that way.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you commune with God!