Do You Keep a Prayer Journal?
Years ago, when I was cleaning out my parents’ house, I discovered my diary from when I was thirteen. It was one of those that had a lock on it with a tiny key so that no one could read it but me. The lock was broken (I’m not sure it ever worked in the first place), so I opened it and started reading. Gasp! What a train wreck I was at thirteen. I won’t bore you (or embarrass myself) with the details, but suffice it to say, I was one miserable teenager. So much of what I read I had no memory of, making me wonder if, even then, I was a fiction writer and didn’t know it.
Once the diary was full, I stopped writing. Thank the Lord! But a few years ago, while going through a difficult time, I started to keep a prayer journal. I had heard about prayer journals at a retreat and thought it would be a good way to recharge my prayer life, which was always pretty anemic. Even though I loved to write, I’d never really kept a journal. Maybe because I didn’t know whom I was writing to. In fiction, I have a reader, someone to talk to. A prayer journal seemed like a good way to talk to God, get my thoughts in order, and keep track of my prayers so a year or so later; I could go back and see all the wonderful ways God had answered my prayers.
It took some discipline (something I have very little of), but as time passed, I found it a wonderful refuge in my day. Sometimes I didn’t even write in complete sentences or even actual words. As Paul says, “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)
I did a lot of groaning. Also, whining and complaining and pleading and then more whining. I took solace in the fact that there’s a book in the Bible called “Lamentations.”It seemed God was okay with all that.
Do you know what happened? I discovered that God really does answer prayer. Maybe not tomorrow. But He does. Most of the time, it was in ways I never expected. Paul’s other words in Ephesians are true, “God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you could ever ask, imagine, or think, according to His power at work in you. To Him be the glory.” (Eph 3:20)
My experience inspired Penny’s Journal: Fortune Lost, the novella that fills in the blanks of the missing fifteen years in Forbidden. I’ve heard from some of you that the novella has inspired you to start your own prayer journal. I’d love to hear more about your experiences. How has keeping a journal invigorated your prayer life? How has God answered your prayers? Let me know in the comments or email me at gina@ginadetwiler.com. Let me know if I can share your story, with or without your name.
Gina Detwiler’s novella Penny’s Journal: Fortune Lost, part of the Forlorn series, is now available at all online retailers.
