Why Keep a Prayer Journal?

Any inexpensive notebook will work great as a journal.

For years I have kept a prayer journal and I have listed specific prayers and specific people to remember while praying. I think it’s important and it’s nice to be able to go back and see where and how prayers have been answered. I had kind of gotten out of the habit of journaling and keeping up with those prayer lists.

I have recently recommitted to journaling. (There are some instagram friends that I think deserve some credit for my recommitment to journaling; Rachel Schmoyer, Sarah Bramme @thiswifelife, Heather Kaufman @hmkstories, two of these ladies are writers and have reminded me of the importance of writing and Sarah reminded me that I should be praying for my husband daily). I think it’s important that we remember to pray for others daily and not just ourselves. And I for one, sometimes need to be reminded! We all get busy and consumed with our own lives, but God commands us to:

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galations 6:2

Keeping a prayer journal and writing down all of those people that you promise to pray for ensures that you will actually remember to pray for them and it’s one way to help to fulfill God’s command to carry each other’s burdens. Don’t just give those requests lip service; I think it’s easy to tell people on social media that you will pray for them and then just forget about it. Journaling is an easy way to remind yourself. If they are personal friends or neighbors in your area, you can do even more to ease their burdens such as:

Cooking a meal for them

Babysitting or taking their kids to a practice or an appointment

Washing a load of clothes for them

Running an errand for them

Inviting them over for coffee and listening and be a friend (show that you care)

There are all sorts of inexpensive ways that you can help to carry one another’s burdens, but I truly believe it begins with prayer and journaling is just my way of keeping up with that prayer list. Start your own prayer journal today!

I have this love hate relationship with exercise. I love that I look and feel better after consistently working out, but I still DON’T love working out. They say that it takes doing something consistently for 2 months or more for it to become a habit. I’ve been working out on a regular basis for 2 years and I’m still not sure it’s a habit for me, (or if it is, it’s a habit I could easily give up!)

Exercise for me is something that I have to schedule into my week and try to plan around when at all possible because I know that it is good for me. There are physical and mental rewards to be had and still I struggle with doing what I know is good for me.

I think it is the same way for me when it comes to spending time in God’s word and in prayer. I know how good it is for me; I have experienced the rewards again and again and yet I still struggle to make it a habit, even after many, many years.

Just like exercise I have to schedule time to spend with God. The payoff is beyond measure. I reap benefits that far outweigh the few minutes that I spend with him each day.

Do you struggle to find the time to spend with God? Pencil that time into your calendar, turn off your phone, get out your Bible and spend a few minutes reading and talking to Him. If you give Him your time, He will give you time and so much more. Start today!

Read Psalms 1:1-

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.