Prayer Journal

I know that most of us struggle to pray due to our over-active thoughts. You start to pray and halfway through your sentence you remember that assignment you had to do - then all of a sudden you start laying out the assignment in your head, thinking of where you'll find the information you need, what type of layout you'll choose, etc. Then all of a sudden you're busy with your assignment and you've forgotten all about God, and that you were actually busy praying. Well, I have a solution: The Prayer Journal

I submitted this to help people who struggle to pray. When your attention span isn't very long, or when you struggle to keep your focus on your prayers, this prayer journal really helps. You keep your attention to your prayers because you're writing down your prayers - so, because your hands are busy you can concentrate on praying better. It's much better than to just sit there with your eyes closed, praying (I usually fell asleep when I did this, or I got distracted by other thoughts and worries instead of focusing on God). This journal really helped me focus - so I encourage you all to use it. Now - the instructions:

On the left hand side of the journal I gave the instructions on how it works. On the right hand side I gave a practical example. Now, due to space, my journal is very short. Please feel free to make your prayers as long as you wish it to be You can buy a normal blank book and add your prayers every day. State the date, your feelings, your prayers and your answers in every date's entry. You add your feelings because it will help you direct your prayers, for example, lets say your feeling "happy" today - you will think about this and immediately start giving God thanks in your prayer journal for everything you're happy about. If you're depressed, you'll be reminded to ask God to help you with your depression, or the problem you face that's making you depressed. Adding your feelings will enable you to pray more effectively, as you'll actually think about how you feel and pray accordingly.

Remember, always look for reasons to give thanks to God. Don't let your prayer journal become this gloomy book where you only talk to God about your problems. Talk to Him about all the good things in your life as well - chat to Him like you would to a normal, every-day, friend.

The "Answers" part of the journal is the tricky part: This is the part where you'll have to get the answer to your problems from God. Now we all know that God does talk to us - most of us are just too busy to hear Him. So, this Prayer Journal will help you set time aside to hear Him. Sometimes you'll hear something - sometimes you'll hear nothing. Don't be discouraged when you hear nothing - just keep on praying in the next consecutive days until you do get an answer.

Please remember that sometimes you'll only hear your own voice in your head, telling you what to do AND other times it will be God telling you what to do. TEST THIS ANSWER by making sure it's Biblical (the Bible will always back up advise that God gives). If you don't know the Bible good enough to know if it's Biblical, talk to your Pastor about it or speak to a friend who knows the Bible REALLY well. If you can't talk to your Pastor about it, or if you don't have any friends who know the Bible really well, you guys can just ask me Just send me a note and I'll help you as best I can.

God wants you to talk to Him - pray every day. And remember, this will bring you closer to God Praying is a very practical way to draw nearer to God. This will also teach you how to recognize His voice.

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." James 4:8a

Oh, and I take no credit for this journal My youth pastor taught this to me

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Open Book Texture by *ashley-lee [link]}