Prayer Journals

[xapiemom]

I'm looking for ideas on how to organize a prayer journal. I'm ADD and have always struggled with prayer because I just can't seem to remember all the issues I want to talk to God about. While on the one hand prayer is conversation with God and should "flow naturally," it doesn't always work that way. I pray throughout the day as the Lord brings things to my heart, but for my quiet time alone with God, I would like a more organized approach so that I can pray for needs on a more regular basis. SO - I'm looking for ideas. I'm more prone to keep up with something that is easy and not too detailed, so please think about the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Silly!)

 

[tturt]

I have a hard time remembering everything too. Suggestion - you know how your list of people to pray for changes? You could just put the regularly mentioned things on one list and then on another sheet have things that change so they can be marked off, moved to page 1, etc. Or you could make a Word document and print it occasionally.

 

[Godsproperty777]

tturt

Great suggestion on this. I was thinking "list" also and a way to either mark off or eliminate the thing or situation off the list when G-d has moved on it.

Xapiemom

I have ADD as well, eveything gets organized by a list. I haven't made one for prayer yet, but now seeing your post makes me think I might!

Blessings

 

[allwhoarethirsty]

I have been thinking about starting one, as well. Seems like a good way to organize your thoughts. I would also record praises not just prayer requests. I don't want to write God a to-do-list!

 

[tturt]

I understand what you're saying but He knows the list is to help me remember - He doesn't need a list & already knows more about the items than I do.

 

[pilgrimgal]

For what it is worth..I have kept a prayer journal daily now for over 30 years. Sometimes I change the format..and write down something which comes to mind during the day or a scripture I want to remember, a prayer need someone shares, etc..but to keep on track I usually use this little approach using the key letters: CHRIST..(easy to remember and simple)

CH....Cleanse my heart, Lord, that I can pray aright. (I ask God to cleanse my heart so I can rightly hear from Him and discern rightly) remembering that the prayers of the righteous availeth much.

R..I revoke any wrongful thoughts that may try to come in and interfere with my prayer time with the Lord always doing this in the powerful Name of Jesus.


I..I invite the Holy Spirit to be present in me and guide me in my prayer time.

S..I ask the Spirit to lead me to scriptures from the Word which are relevant to any prayers I say. (This can take searching the bible passages or may just easily pop into my thoughts)..or one of the ones I wrote down earlier. )

T..(very important) I thank God in advance for anything He wants me to pray and actually ask Him to direct me in what I pray and who I pray for if interceding for others.

Hope this helps. Not to be rigid but flexible..that is the key. Also believing that God, the Holy Spirit will be present and help us pray.

And, it goes without saying, that I write these things down including scriptures and prayers said..dating this every time I put an entry in my journal. (It also helps to backtrack months later and see what God was doing at the time of that journal entry)..sort of looking back on God's footsteps in my life.

peace and blessings..

 

[paul1149]

I have a possible solution which might be useful, but it gets a little technical.

If you want to use the computer to organize a prayer journal, you could add items by date, as you would to a diary. But in Word, you could create a paragraph Style called Current, and assign it to every matter that is not yet resolved.

Then create a Table of Contents at the top, and organize it only to show Current items. This will give you a list of things that still need prayer. As items are resolved, you could click on their Table listing, which would take you to the item, and change the paragraph style away from Current. This would give you both a current list and a detailed history.

All this could be automated with macros and hotkeys. This is how I organize my personal journal, except I don't keep a list of current items.