EFFECTIVE PRAYER—Keeping a Prayer Journal

How to pray like a warrior

Effective prayers start with a plan. In a successful battle, strategies are planned out beforehand. What weapons should be used? How many people should be sent out? Where will it be fought and how? 

A battle always has as its purpose; the reaching of a mission goal by use of military force. A victory in the battle is achieved when one of the opposing sides forces the other to abandon its mission and surrender its forces, routs the other (i.e., forces it to retreat or renders it militarily ineffective for further combat operations), or annihilates the latter, resulting in their deaths or capture. {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle}
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​We are in a battle for our families, our jobs, our safety, our finances, and so much more. The enemy wants to come in and steal, kill, and destroy the lives of God’s children. Satan can’t win against God, but he can take us down one lie at a time if we don’t have a plan to stand firm.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)

Have a plan

Several months ago, I was introduced to keeping a prayer journal.

I journal almost every day, anyway, but I hardly remember what I’ve written down and seldom go back over what I wrote the day before. However, once I began organizing my prayers, documenting everything I’m grateful for, and making a purposeful note of the answers that come, my prayer life moved up to a whole new level.

I would journal, sometimes, when a prayer was answered, but often those notes got lost in all the pages where I wrote about all my problems and frustrations. (If I haven’t mentioned this before, I burned all those old whiny journals, as I now call them). Who needs to drag all that around?

Over the past few months, I’ve gone through a few versions of my Prayer Warrior’s Journal, and each one is an improvement from the previous. I don’t believe there is a set-in-stone kind of way to keep a prayer journal. We need to find something we are comfortable with and modify as needed.
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My current prayer journal is divided into three sections: My prayers, My gratitudes, and His answers. 

Still, there are a few basic aspects to consider when putting your journal together. I’ll share a couple in this post, and delve into more next time. 

Pray Scripture

Here is a truth I’ve found from experience. The most powerful prayers come directly from the Bible.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 NIV

The scripture is God-breathed truth. Nothing can stand against it, especially the enemy we are in constant battle with. If you want to line up your prayers with God’s will, find scriptures to back up your words.

I will be sharing scriptures for powerful prayers in a future post. I’ve been collecting them in my prayer journal.

Have a Grateful Heart

This is truly an important section to add to your journal. The more I write down what I’m grateful for, the more I have to write about. Honestly.

In my current journal, Gratitudes go in the second section, but I think it needs to come first. When we sit down to pray, we need to acknowledge God’s greatness, then thank him for the many blessings each day holds. Let’s start with the basics that we’ve heard time and again: did you wake up in a bed with blankets and sheets? Many don’t. Do you have a solid roof over your head? Not everyone does. Is your fridge well-stocked? Even here in America, there are a lot of children and adults that go hungry and aren’t sure of where their next meal comes from.

Those are the basics. But what about being grateful for the beauty of the flowers that bloom around your house? Or the sweet scent of roses, gardenias, and other fragrant plants? What about your job? That you earn a paycheck? How about your child’s smile and the sound of their laughter? What about when a friend stops to ask how you were doing when you were having a bad day because they sensed something was wrong? How about the fact that you have friends and people that care for you? Not everyone does.
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If you are someone who doesn’t, then getting before God and finding out why is important and probably the best thing you can do for yourself and your quality of life. 

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
​1 John 5:14 ESV 

He will hear your prayers. He rejoices in your gratefulness. He has given us this wonderful world. Let us not take advantage of it, okay? Let’s look, really look hard, at the beauty, the bounty, the benevolence of His love for us and all He provides for us. 
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Notice it. Write it down. Let it sink deep into your heart so that good comes out, instead of the negativity that often permeates our hearts. 

Next week, we’ll dive deeper into the parts of the Prayer Journal and how you can make the most out of your daily quiet times. I hope you are blessed by what you’ve read so far. Let me know if you are in the comments.