Journaling
by 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's 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, Katherine,
for writing. I pray to have been an encouragement.
All of us need an inspiration from time to
time---thank you.
With love, pamela
©2004
A Christian Home
