Prayer Journaling: A Guided Christian Practice For Surrender

This guided session invites you into the spiritual practice of prayer journaling - a transformative way to pour out your heart to God, surrender your burdens, and cultivate gratitude. Through personal testimony and scripture, you'll be encouraged to write boldly, trusting that God hears every prayer. The session includes a few minutes of guided writing time, so have a pen and paper or your phone ready. Perfect for anyone seeking a deeper, more intentional prayer life and a tangible record of God's faithfulness to reflect on in every season.

Transcript

Hi friends, Today I want to talk about a practice that I do in my daily life that has truly transformed my relationship with God, And that is prayer journaling. The power of writing down your prayers to God, Being able to reflect back over the years and see how He has fulfilled every one of His promises. So to start, Let's look at scripture in Hebrews 4. 16 it says, Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. And then also the verse from Matthew 7-7 which says, Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you will find, Knock and the door will be opened to you. So we see all throughout scripture that Sometimes all we have to do is ask. There are so many times where I've been moving in my life where I find myself ruminating, Thinking about whatever issue that is going on, I can remember vividly. When my father passed away unexpectedly and I was trying to deal with all of the things with his estate and he had an RV that I was trying to sell. And my mom had found a company to buy it and went there, Handled everything, Signed over the paperwork, And basically was waiting for the final check. We left the RV there, Got our signatures, But they would send us the check in the mail. And there was a lot of hurdles to jump through because The title was in his name and me having to sign it over as the executor of his estate. Just all the hoops to jump through and so what I thought was going to be like a quick turnaround turned into months later and Months later, They reached out and said, Hey, We know we said that we're going to offer this amount, But we made a mistake and it's not worth that much. So we're going to give you this amount. And so here I am pregnant, Frustrated, Grieving my father's death. And it's like, I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. And I remember in this moment, Just ruminating constantly, Oh my gosh, This is so frustrating. I don't want to have to go down there and take the RV and then find somewhere else to do. I was just so overwhelmed. And I remember constantly thinking, And I was like venting to my husband and my friends and everybody, But I had not turned to God. And I remember We were doing a rooted program at our church where that particular day was about prayer and really leaning into prayer and making your requests known to God. And I realized at that moment, I haven't even really prayed about it. I vented about it, But I haven't asked the Lord. Work this out. This is beyond my control. I am dealing with so much in this moment. I cannot carry this additional burden. Please take it over. And that day we went into the sanctuary and we were actually doing prayer journaling. And I had been doing prayer journaling for years, But with all of life's happenings in the midst of grief, Sometimes you fall off of your normal patterns. In that moment, I wrote, And I was like, Lord, This is what's on my heart. I am pregnant. I am grieving. I am tired. And I thought this one piece of the puzzle was done, And for them to come back, And I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. Lord, Make it right. And I kid you not, Literally. The next week I was in the room in the RUDA program again and got a phone call and I was like, Okay, This is weird. So I stepped out. And it was a call saying that, You know what, If things work out, We're sending you the chat. And I was just like, Oh my gosh, This is nothing but God. And it's so beautiful to be able to go back into my journal, Open that up and remember the prayers that I cried out in that moment of just heartbreak and grieving and confusion and see how he has fulfilled that promise. I originally started prayer journaling back in 2013, When my relationship with God truly formed. I was at a turning point in my life where I lost my job at the time, And I was having issues finding another one and just didn't know my purpose or what I was even doing in life. I turned to God in that moment, And I didn't know how to find the words to pray, So I would write down prayers. But I can refer back to those prayers and see how God has moved in incredible ways. And so I think that's one of the cool things about prayer journaling is, Yes, We pray on a daily basis. Make our requests known to God. We can pour out our hearts to Him just verbally, Like sitting right here. We don't have to go through a median. Like, Jesus has broke that veil. We can literally talk to Him right here in this moment. But the power of writing down our prayers can be so transformative because you have the evidence to refer back to them. And in another time when you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed, Go back and look at how God has fulfilled so many promises before. He is that same God who has worked through the time of stress and grief, And he will work through this moment now. So being able to have just proof and evidence. Such a beautiful thing. When it comes to prayer journaling, You can use so many different mediums. So find what works for you in this season and know that it may change over time. So maybe you're someone who's really leaning into the digital space right now. Like you love the convenience of having your phone nearby that you can be on the train or in your car at a stoplight and just note down something that you want to pray really quick. I once used the Day One app where I could literally type out on my computer or on my phone my prayers for that day and I see it on the calendar that I can refer back to, Like on this day years ago, What I wrote down. There's been many seasons in my life where I've used physical notebooks, Just cheap notebooks, Nothing fancy. But recently I've created my own prayer journal called the Breath and Prayer Journal, Which has space for prayers, Which has space for gratitude, Which has space for notes, For sermons, Or whatever it may be. You don't have to have anything fancy, Just have something that works best for you. So instead of just talking about prayer journaling, I want us to take a few minutes to actually practice it today. So take a moment, Find something to write with. Maybe you grab a notebook, A scratch, A paper, A piece of mail, And maybe your phone or your computer. And we're just going to take a moment to pray boldly to God with whatever is on your heart. So some people ask, How do you start prayer journaling? What do you even write about? Honestly, It's about pouring out your heart to God. And so I want you to open up to a page and we're just going to take a couple of minutes to write. I'm just going to fill one page today. And I want you to whatever comes up, You can start with, Lord, Today I am feeling. You can share something that you've been carrying, A burden, A weight, Something that you've been ruminating on that you need to turn over to God. But I challenge you to pray boldly, Knowing that He is the almighty, Powerful God. What can you ask? He already knows the desires of your heart. Sometimes all you have to do is just ask, And He's waiting for us to truly surrender our wants, Our desires, Our needs to Him. So let's just take a moment to write. Maybe you start by taking. A deep breath. And then we'll just write our prayers just together. So taking a couple of minutes to do that. It's taking another minute if you're still writing. But it doesn't have to be pretty. It's fine to make mistakes. I have so many places where I have scratch outs and everything. But I can literally look back at prayers that I've prayed months ago, Years ago, And see how God has answered. Maybe not exactly in the way that I want it, Maybe not exactly in the timing that I want, But everything according to his plan. So I encourage you to adopt a prayer journaling practice where you present your request to God, Where you surrender whatever burdens you're holding on to, But as well as leaning into gratitude. So expressing gratitude and thanks for the blessings that you to have in your life and the ways that he has moved in your life. And like I said, I recently created my breath and prayer journal. So if you're looking for a tool that you can use as a part of your daily quiet time, I do invite you to check it out. So as we close out, I just want to remind you that God is listening. God is always with you. And sometimes he is just waiting for us to. Talk to Him, To come to Him first without any fear. Pray boldly to Him because He can answer our prayers. So I just want to close us out in prayer and then send us on our way. Laura, Thank you for this time just to pause in your presence and to pour out our hearts to you. We're so grateful that the veil is lifted because of Jesus Christ, That we do not have to go through a medium or anything to have access to you. You are with us. Your Holy Spirit dwells within us. Help us lean into that more. Help us to turn to you first with our problems, Our burdens, Our gratitude. Whatever is on our hearts, Come to you first. Let us. Use this practice of prayer journaling to remember that. Use it as a spiritual discipline that we can lean into each and every day. Quite boldly, We turn our request over to you. Lift these prayers to you now for you to move and just continue being the awesomely amazing God that you are. We're so grateful for everything that you've done in our lives. Everything that you continue to do and everything you are doing. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Thank you so much for joining me. I'll see you in the next one.