~The Welcome Home~
On Keeping a
Journal
pamela
spurling
Dear Sisters---
I am writing this week’s welcome home letter
specifically in response to my friend who wrote
to me about journaling but I thought I would
sort of share my thoughts in the form of an open
letter in order that you might be encouraged in
your quiet time with the LORD and to perhaps
develop a new area in your life and that is the
area of prayer and journaling as a means of
walking with Him and watching Him as He works in
your life.
A journal of prayer is simply a written
collection of your daily thoughts, prayers,
memory verses or passages, requests, petitions,
praises, trials and longings that you are
experiencing. A prayer journal need not be any
particular type or style of notebook or
paper---but one thing I have found, it does need
to be something that is our personalized style
or preference---otherwise, you’ll be less likely
or inclined to actually use the book. A pretty
pen is also preferable but not necessary as a
pencil will do the job just as nicely. I tend
not to actually date every entry but dates are
good markers as the LORD speaks to you through
His Word or in answered prayer, it’s interesting
to be able to look back on situations and see
exactly when you prayed over a particular issue
and then to see how the LORD worked or answered;
and so, it is useful to have specific dates.
Some women feel as though they need to begin a
project at a certain point in the year or at the
beginning of a month or whatever. O, it’s not
necessary at all to begin on a specific day or
to begin at a certain point such as, when you
are going through a trial or have specific for
which you’re seeking answers; it really isn’t a
matter of when or how to begin---but (I believe)
it *is* necessary to begin!
If you’ve never journaled or haven’t in a long
while, then I pray to encourage you today to
begin journaling your journey. Choose a pen and
a journal; it needn't be any specific
type---again, just something you would enjoy,
and set out the first day to just write a letter
to the LORD---a letter of praise, of thanks, of
honour, of hope and of your need for His work in
your life. I’d suggest doing this after you have
prayed to Him and sought His face, and in a
spirit of prayer, seek to be right before Him.
Confess known sin, confess attitudes or
behaviours, confess faults and shortcomings, and
confess those things for which you have fretted
over or concerned yourself and give Him those
things. Give Him the glory and honour due His
Name. Then choose a passage of the Word to read
and on which you can meditate. In your
meditation, ask the LORD to show you what He
would have for you in the reading of His Word.
Put your journal away until the next morning or
the next time you have with the LORD.
You know, He says that His Word will never
return void. In Isaiah 55:11 we read: "So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it
shall not return unto me void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
So we know that the Word is living... it is for
us, for our spiritual health---our very life.
After prayer and reading in the Word, thoughts
will naturally come to your mind, names of
people will occur to you and situations that
concern you will be before you in your thoughts.
You may have a list of names of people for whom
you pray each day or specific requests you want
to remember each day. These are the very things
that make up the material for a journal, these
are the things to begin to commit to paper. If
you have a request, then write it---pray about
it and wait. Wait for it because as we read in
Habakkuk 2.3, it will surely come. "For the
vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the
end it shall speak, and not lie: though it
tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come,
it will not tarry."
It does seem that some answers do "tarry"
doesn't it?! But we know the LORD hears us. John
9.31: "Now we know that God heareth not sinners:
but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth
his will, him he heareth."
When we come before Him in an attitude of
humility and with a heart of openness and
expectancy, we're surely going to receive that
blessing of the drinking from the well of God's
Word---regardless what His answer ends up
being---even if it's not what we think it would
be/should be. That's our sovereign LORD's to
choose. Ours is to obey, to trust Him in faith.
Psalm 38.15: "For in thee, O LORD, do I hope:
thou wilt hear, O Lord my God." We can rest
assured that the LORD is attentive to our
prayers and that He will answer according to His
purpose and plan. That's what's sometimes
difficult to accept: that He will perhaps answer
differently than we hope---but(!) that's where
faith comes in... faith, it's been said, is in
advance trusting God knowing that His plan is
*exactly* what we'd choose had we all the facts
at the beginning.
Psalm 69.13 "But as for me, my prayer is unto
thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in
the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth
of thy salvation."
So, as we read, as we trust, as we pray, as we
seek the LORD, the purpose of our journal is to
make notations of any or all those things... to
write down what's in our heart, what's in our
thoughts, what both troubles and delights us.
Psalms 94.19 "In the multitude of my thoughts
within me thy comforts delight my soul."
His comforts will delight our soul. As we drink
from the rich well of His Word, we will know
that peace that passes understanding. Our
thoughts will be heavenward. Jeremiah 15.16 "Thy
words were found, and I did eat them; and thy
word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine
heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God
of hosts."
Your journal may, in the end, look very
different than you originally begin or intend.
As the days pass, you may get into a particular
pattern and then as you enter a season in your
life, your journal may reflect the rocks on the
path of your journey or the smooth sailing on
calm seas in a season of rest in your walk with
the LORD. Your pages may become tear stained and
smudged. You may find that you cannot write for
the grief of your heart is too deep and your
anguish overwhelming. You know, the LORD hears
your cries and catches your tears. A journal
mustn't be a matter of bondage---quite the
contrary: it ought to free you---and I believe
it will.
You see, oftentimes, the enemy seeks to thwart
every effort we make to walk with God, to
commune with Him and to feast at His banqueting
table. The enemy seeks to undermine our
intentions and our decisions. It is in times
like these that I write matters in my journal
and then I have a written account of decisions
and directions I have committed to the LORD. No
matter how many darts the enemy lobs my way, no
matter the number of attacks he initiates, I
need only reread what I have written in my
journal and I have, in addition to God's Word,
an account I can depend on---I can take these
words to the LORD and again lay them at His feet
and seek His face in whatever matter concerns
me---I've done this so many times and God is
faithful.
Malachi 3.16 "Then they that feared the LORD
spake often one to another: and the LORD
hearkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for them that
feared the LORD, and that thought upon his
name."
I pray for you today, each one, that He be the
joy and rejoicing of your heart. Thank you, dear
friend, for writing. I pray to have been an
encouragement. All of us need an inspiration
from time to time---thank you.
With love, pamela