Prayer Journaling for Women--Grow Your Faith with Guided Prompts
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Have you ever crafted a handwritten letter to someone you love? If so, you likely know the euphoric freedom that comes with wrangling your deepest feelings into words and releasing them onto a sheet of crisp white paper. And if you have ever received a letter from someone you love, you undoubtedly know the thrill of reading and cherishing someone’s deepest thoughts about you. Prayer journaling provides a way for women to express their love for God and remember his love for them.
That's why we want to offer you this FREE Prayer Journaling download with prompts to get you started on your prayer journaling journey.
How Can Prayer Journaling Deepen a Woman’s Relationship with God?
Meaningful, long-lasting relationships begin by getting to know someone. You can’t truly love a person you don’t know. That’s why it is so important that believers understand who God is and all He has done. Throughout Scripture we’re called to seek him, draw near to him, and press on to know him. But that takes time. Time spent listening to God through his Holy Word. And time spent talking to God through prayer. This sacred back-and-forth communication solidifies a deep love relationship that was first initiated by God through Jesus.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
In scripture Mary from Bethany sought God and found Him by choosing above all else to sit at the feet of Jesus and hang on his every word. Prayer Journaling provides a way for us to sit at Jesus' feet, ponder his Word, ask hard questions, bear our souls, and make him above all else the center of our universe.
Scripture plays a big role in prayer journaling because as God reveals more and more about himself and his ways through his Word, those truths take root and become a part of who we are. Our time with God literally changes our lives. His thoughts and ways become our own. And our love letters begin to sound a whole lot like the words He has spoken to us. Like any other close relationship, we start to act and speak like the One with whom we share the most time.
Practical Benefits of Prayer Journaling
In a world full of distractions, prayer journaling is a practical way to capture our wandering thoughts and keep them in the present so that we can focus all our attention on that one needful thing—our time with God.
Whether we’re using prayer journal prompts to guide us or simply telling God about our day, the physical act of writing our prayers forces our overactive brains to slow down and engage with our senses. As we transfer each word to the page, we’re able to better process our emotions, and we’re far more likely to remember the thoughts we’re documenting.
But even if we don’t remember what we’ve written, a prayer journal provides a record of our conversations with God that can serve as a spiritual growth chart. When looking back at the pages of our journal we can see God’s faithfulness in action through every season, become aware of our own patterns of sin, and keep track of answered prayer. Our prayer journals can also become a tangible testimony of our walk with God for generations to come.
Prayer journaling also provides a safe space to express our deepest concerns. According to experts in the field of neuroscience, the very act of emptying our anxious thoughts onto a page has therapeutic value. But when that page is a letter to our Heavenly Father, the benefits go far beyond the realm of therapy. Scripture tells us that when we go to the Lord in prayer and surrender our anxious cares to him, his peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).
Five Easy Steps to Begin Prayer Journaling
The hardest part of any new endeavor is getting started, so here are five easy steps to help you begin your new prayer journaling adventure with God.
- Buy a journal or notebook you love. It’s no secret that women enjoy lovely things. To help motivate yourself for your new prayer adventure, choose a journal that is aesthetically pleasing to you. It doesn’t have to be expensive. You can find a wide variety of notebooks and journals at discount stores or even thrift stores. The goal is to choose a book that is special to you and dedicated to prayers only.
- Choose a specific place to keep your journal. If you’re in a season of life that keeps you away from home most of the day, you may want to keep your journal in a purse or backpack so that whenever you have a spare moment—or a God-moment—your journal is close at hand to record your prayers while they’re fresh. If you spend the majority of your time at home, place your journal in a prominent spot as a visual reminder that God is always ready and eager to hear your prayers. Helpful Tip: Keeping your Bible near your prayer journal makes it easier to look up scripture when prompted by God.
- Dedicate a special time to journal regularly, but don’t limit yourself to that time. Let’s face it, no believer is looking for another task to add to their checklist of things to do. But the more time we spend with God in prayer, the better we’re able to understand that prayer is not a chore. It’s a privilege. A lifeline. A refuge. A gift. For new Christians, that truth can be difficult to fathom, but when we purposefully choose to set aside time to spend with our Father in prayer, He opens the eyes of our understanding to experience the treasure of his presence. Whether you commit to journal once a week, or daily—keep and guard your prayer date with God. But don’t be surprised if that time begins to feel too short. That’s how true love works. No amount of time ever seems like enough when you’re with the one you love.
- Begin writing, and don’t censor yourself. One of the things that makes writing a letter to God different than writing a letter to a human loved one is that your Heavenly Father already knows everything. Absolutely everything. He already knows what you need, what you want, what you’ve done, what you think, and how you feel—the good and the bad. So, there’s no need to mince words or hold back what is on your heart. God also isn’t moved by fancy words or clever dialogue (Matthew 6:7-8). We can be more real with our Heavenly Father than anyone else in our lives. Though we owe it to Him to always speak with reverence and respect, we can trust God with the ugly, broken pieces of our lives. As his blood-bought children, we are invited to surrender all those pieces to Him and "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” (Hebrews 4:16). Also, feel free to express your love for God in creative ways when journaling. If you write poems, write one for him. If you’re an artist, embellish your journal with your best work in his honor. God is the one who bestows our gifts, talents, and skills—He deserves and enjoys the fruit of those gifts in our love letters.
- Make “listening” an integral part of your journaling. After you’ve spent time pouring out your heart to God in the pages of your journal, put your pen down and just … Be. Still. Listening is a lost art in today’s culture. Sure, we hear millions of sound bites throughout the day, but there’s a big difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is the physical act of perceiving sound, while listening requires us to pay attention to gain understanding. Active listening is essential in any love relationship, and much more so in our relationship with God (John 10:27). During your listening time, God might prompt your heart with instruction or promises from Scripture. He might bring to your remembrance a person or situation to pray about, or He may simply give you a sense of his perfect peace and the assurance of his love for you. After your listening time is over, be sure to jot down in your journal the things God revealed. Helpful Tip: The primary way God speaks to us is through his Word. Nothing He ever says will be contrary to Scripture. So be sure to have a Bible or Bible App handy during your listening time.
If you typically have trouble putting your thoughts into words, don’t let that stop you from taking the leap into prayer journaling. Click here for five prayer prompts to help get you started. As you seek God in this special way, he will meet you there and take your relationship to a whole new level. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Download the FREE Prayer Journal with Prompts here.
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