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How a Prayer Journal will Change your Life

A few years ago I started keeping a prayer journal. A lot has happened in my life since then. Truthfully, it’s been quite a rollercoaster ride. Along the way, I’ve offered up many prayers to God and received many answers back. So much happens that it’s easy to lose track of all of the things He has to say. That’s why I’m glad I started a prayer journal. When I get discouraged and think I’ll never hear from God again, I can look over my journal entries and see the goodness of God as He answered my prayers and kept me going when I wanted to give up.

I tend to keep journaling pretty simple and I don’t write in it every day. But when God has something important to say to me or I have a deep down need to write to Him, I get it out and make an entry. Whether I feel good or bad, I pour my heart out to God on paper. Sometimes I’ll write out a prayer directly to God just as I would say it to Him. And sometimes it’s just my feelings about the day or situation I’m in. (Hey, sometimes its silly doodles of flowers, cuz I’m girly like that!)

No matter what I write or have to say about my crazy life, the best part of my prayer journal is keeping track of what God says back to me. His answers always give me comfort in the moment. But I also know that I will look back over them sometime in the future and find strength in His words again.

It’s interesting to see the many different ways God has of answering prayer.

God uses His own word to speak to us. So it’s no wonder that the pages of my prayer journal are filled with scripture after scripture. Each one of them holds a special meaning to me, so I make sure to write out not only the verse but also why God gave me that particular scripture in response to my prayer.

Recently I read through some of my old entries and found a verse from Romans 15:5 “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus.” What really sticks out to me in this verse are the words perseverance and encouragement. I’m positive that God spoke these words into my heart that day because I had asked Him for those two exact things the day before. But if I had not recorded that response from God in my journal along with my thoughts and prayer I wouldn’t be able to look back on it now and remember just how good God is in answering my prayers.

Sometimes God will speak to us through a thought or just one word. When He speaks to us in this way, there is no doubt that the one word or thought is directly from Him. I have pages and pages of notes God has given to me in a sudden burst of inspiration. A single thought or word that He has shared to inspire and encourage my heart. Heck, once it was a number. That one was interesting!

God speaks to us through other people. How many times have I been minding my own business and God has said something to me through another person? More times than I can count. It could come from hearing the pastor preach a sermon that gets right to the heart of the matter. Or having a conversation with a dear friend who openly shares her own circumstances with me. Or even sitting in traffic and listening to a song on the radio. However, God speaks to me I try to write about it in my journal. I don’t want to forget what He said and I don’t want His words to fall away unnoticed just because I get busy in this crazy mess we call life.

Just like me, I’m sure you’re on your own rollercoaster ride of nonstop action. And I promised you in the title of this post that a prayer journal would change your life. So I’d like to share with you three things that have really changed in my life since I began keeping a prayer journal in the hope that it will change yours too. Each of them builds on the next. And before you know it your life, in particular, your prayer life will be changed!

#1 I realized God really does listen when we pray.

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

Jeremiah 29:12

Seeing is believing. So, when we see God’s answers to our prayers written down in black and white, we start to understand that God really listens when we pray. As I said before, it is incredible to look back at my previous journal entries and see the way God has faithfully answered my prayers. In those times when I was desperate for an answer and couldn’t wait to hear from God, He listened and He answered.

#2 Thankfulness filled my heart.

but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

Philippians 4:6

How is it possible to go through difficulties and at the same time pray with thanksgiving? The answer is simple, as the pages of our journals begin to fill up, thankfulness is a natural reaction to so many answered prayers. That thankfulness builds up inside and covers all of the dark places we try so hard to hide. It grows and takes root until our hearts are filled to the brim with thankfulness for everything God has done.

#3 My relationship with God grew closer and closer the more I prayed.

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.

Psalm 145:18

Isn’t it amazing to know that God wants to talk to us? And He wants to have a real and meaningful relationship with us? Closeness with God is what I crave the most and it’s what I’ve found through my prayer life. The more time I spend with Him, the better my relationship with Him becomes. If like me, you’re longing for closeness with God, it’s just a prayer away. The more you call upon Him the nearer He is to you. All you have to do is start the conversation, He’ll do the rest.

I hope that this Bible Study has given you a few ideas of where to start with your prayer journal. There is no right or wrong way to do it. A lot of people fill their journals with pictures and artwork or maybe stickers that have meaning to them. (Who doesn’t love a cute sticker?) Others just want to write down their feelings, thoughts or answered prayers. Whatever you choose to put in your journal, the real power within its pages is knowing that God is listening when you pray and that He is answering you too. It may sound simple, but that’s how a prayer journal will change your life! Praying for you to see answered prayers filling up your pages soon!

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By Connie Rowland|2020-08-15T20:24:16-05:00January 2nd, 2019|Prayer|8 Comments

Power of Prayer – James 5:16

As I was researching this Bible Study, I came across some articles that claimed the power of prayer is a mysterious force. Honestly, I just don’t believe that. Prayer is not a mystery that we can’t comprehend. Like most things pertaining to God, it is simple and easy to understand. So if prayer is not a mysterious force, what is it?

Prayer is our direct line to God. When we call on Him, He hears us and He answers. It’s simple, maybe too simple for some people. Maybe they want it to be mysterious and complicated for some reason that is beyond me. But I believe in a God who loves me and wants to hear from me as much as I want to hear from Him.

Prayer is powerful! And the power of prayer is real and tangible. As real as anything we can see or touch. It is a source of strength that we, as Christians, can tap into at any time, day or night. This verse from James sums up this power perfectly.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

James 5:16

Prayer has the power to make things happen. Not because of our own strength, but because we have been declared righteous through faith in Jesus. He is the reason that our prayers have power!

Elijah was a righteous man. He prayed for the rain to be withheld and the Lord answered him. Then he prayed for the rain to come and the Lord answered again. Elijah didn’t just say a little prayer every now and then, he prayed continually and earnestly that God would keep the rain from falling and then that He would bring the rain. (You can read more about Elijah in 1 Kings)

Because we are righteous in God’s eyes our prayers are effective and powerful tools. We just need to practice the same kind of faithful and consistent prayer that Elijah did. Then the results will be undeniable.

Prayer has the power to make things happen. Not because of our own strength, but because we have been declared righteous through faith in Jesus. #Prayer #FaithClick To Tweet

In order for us to see the power of prayer in our lives, we must first believe in it and have faith in God.

Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Mark 11:22-24

With His words here in Mark, Jesus emphasized the power of believing and having faith.

Sometimes we pray but we don’t really believe that anything will actually happen. Or we pray and think that our problems are too big, too small, too whatever for God. We have “a wing and a prayer” mentality. Kind of like luck or happenstance. Maybe our prayers are heard and maybe they’re not.

But what Jesus is talking about here is the condition of our heart. Do we really believe that God will hear our prayers? Do we have faith that God will answer us? Because if we want to see the power of prayer, we must truly believe in it.

We can have confidence in the power of prayer.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16

Prayer is not a last resort. Even though we may see it that way sometimes. When something bad happens we try to fix it on our own and only turn to prayer once we have failed. (Believe me, I’m guilty of this sometimes too!)

But prayer is not our last hope, instead, it is our greatest offense and our best option in all circumstances. No matter what is going on in our lives, good or bad, God wants to hear about it. There is no need to worry about if it’s okay to talk to God or how our prayers will be received. We can boldly take all of our problems right to His throne of grace in our time of need.

In my life, I have seen the power of prayer many times. But never more than when my mom had cancer. The doctors gave her about three months to live, however, God gave us three more years together. And I have no doubt that it was the power of prayer at work. So many people were praying for my mom. Our family and friends, two whole churches, even people we didn’t know. They were all praying for her. And guess what… God heard their prayers. He listened and He cared. He knew that our family was in need and He didn’t let us down. It was during this time that God allowed me to experience the power of prayer firsthand. I could see how prayer is the solution to all of life’s problems and how we can have complete confidence in taking everything to God in prayer.

So you see, there is nothing mysterious about the power of prayer. We are simply having a conversation with a loving and faithful God.

Isn’t it amazing to know that the Creator of the universe, the One who spoke the world into motion wants to speak to you? God loves you and He wants to hear from you. So, today, I pray that you will claim the power of prayer and see the undeniable results in your life.

Until next time, God bless!

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By Connie Rowland|2020-08-24T14:13:57-05:00April 11th, 2018|Christian Life, Prayer|5 Comments

Encouraging Bible Verses about Prayer

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

James 5:16

Prayer is powerful! And it has the ability to accomplish so much in our lives. It is our direct line to the creator of the world. Each prayer lifted up to God is a powerful and effective tool. Below are some of the many Encouraging Bible Verses about Prayer. I pray that they will help you to take hold of this amazing power and see it at work in your life.

God promises to hear our prayers.

God hears every one of our prayers and He answers them too. This is our promise from God, He hears us when we call out to Him and He will not ignore or forsake us in our weakness. That is the kind of promise that gives us complete confidence. We can take anything to God. No matter how big or small our troubles are, He wants to talk to us about it.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

1 John 5:14-15

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 John 5:14 #Prayer #BibleVerses Click To Tweet

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.

Psalm 145:18

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

Jeremiah 29:12

The Lord is far from the wicked,
But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 15:29

Prayer in the Psalms

The Psalms are filled with heartfelt cries to Our Heavenly Father. Here is a select few to start with. I encourage you to seek out others. They will lift you up as you lift up your prayers to God. And don’t forget, praying scripture, God’s own word, back to Him is powerful. So, don’t be afraid to recite these verses or even part of them to God.

I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God;
Incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech.

Psalm 17:6

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

Psalm 5:3

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. Psalm 5:3 #PrayerClick To Tweet

He shall regard the prayer of the destitute,
And shall not despise their prayer.

Psalm 102:17

Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141:2

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

Psalm 4:1

Jesus prayed.

Here’s an amazing thought, Jesus prayed for help the same way we do. When He needed help, He went to God in prayer. When we need help, we should follow His example and take our troubles to God too.

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

Matthew 26:42

Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Luke 6:12

Jesus taught us how to pray.

The Lord’s Prayer is a passage of scripture that we are all familiar with. We have heard it many times and probably know it by heart. But there is a pattern to this prayer that teaches us how to pray. Within it, there are six requests. The first three are to see the kingdom come, or God’s will in our lives. The second three are to meet the needs of the one praying. Then it ends with praise for God. It is perfectly okay to recite these words of Jesus as is, or use them as a template to follow in our own prayers.

In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Matthew 6:9-13

Holy Spirit prays for us when we don’t know what to pray.

Sometimes we just don’t know what to pray. The words get caught in our throat or they just don’t come at all. But that’s okay, because in these moments our Helper, the Holy Spirit, prays for us. This is honestly one of my favorite verses. It shows how much love God has for us and how He accounted for every hardship we could possibly face. It gives me so much encouragement to know that in my weakness the Holy Spirit is praying for me. I hope that knowing the Spirit is praying for you will give you the same encouragement it has given me.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:26

This is not in any way a comprehensive list of every Bible verse about prayer. But I hope and pray that it encourages you in your daily walk with Christ. And that it gives you a starting place to search out more scriptures and have a more fulfilling prayer life. May God bless you as you continue steadfastly in prayer!

rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

Romans 12:12