I thought to start the New Year off that we would touch on the topic of how to keep a prayer journal.

I began prayer journaling right after I accepted the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior. I had a hard time focusing while I was praying. I kept getting side tracked and losing my place. A good friend of mine who had been walking with the Lord told me about prayer journaling. She shared with me how she did it and that was all it took.

Since, I love to journal anyways, this was a new and exciting challenge to me. Not to mention that it helped me when I was praying to stay focused on one thing at a time, settled my mind down and helped me to listen.

I started out with a simple composition book from Dollar General. In the front half of the book I put my personal prayer requests. The things that were troubling me, requests, concerns, etc. In the second half of the book I put all the people that had asked me to pray for them. This also helped me to remember the ones that I had told I would pray for.

It really helped me to leave space after each prayer. Why you might ask? So that when the prayer was answered I could go back and document it. I would go back when the prayer was answered and write in the date and the answer in a different colored ink. I can't tell you how this has helped me in my walk with God. I can pull out any of my prayer notebooks and read them and see the hand of God all over them. His faithfulness leaps off the page when you use the different colored ink.

Now that I have been prayer journaling for a while, I have stream-lined my method. I have a three ring binder with paper that I add as needed. I have divided it in many different sections.

One - personal requests
Two - family requests
Three - intercession for others
Four - Praise and Worship to the Lord
Five - Thanking the Lord
Five - To do

I have included a To Do section in my prayer journal because it never fails when I get deep into praying and writing my mind will stop on something that I am suppose to do. Like write an article for BellaOnline or wash clothes. So I flip over to that section and add my current task and than jump right back in praying. This way, I don't loose the moment. I keep focused and stay in the presence of God.

You might check out the internet as I know now there are some very nice journals that specialize in the prayer department.

Happy New Year