5 Reasons to Journal & How it Changed Me

Do you journal?

For the longest time, I hated journaling.  I wasn’t much for writing.  But there came a point, & I’ve had multiple points like this over the course of my life, where I wanted to go deeper with God.  You know, it’s that desire you have when you feel like you’ve hit a wall or a glass ceiling & you just want more.  You know there’s more.  But you don’t exactly know how to get there.

The Best Question to Ask…

Whenever I have moments like that, there’s always a question I ask myself.  And I probably tailor this question to the situation.  But it goes something like this, “What do spiritual people do?”  In other words, when I want to figure out what the next step is, what the next thing is, I try to look around at people who I think have it figured out & learn what they’re doing.

So if I’m wanting to become better at our personal finances, I want to ask, “What do people do who are good stewards of their money?”

If I want to become better at my marriage, I want to ask, “What do the people do who I look up to as having strong marriages?”

I often ask dad’s who are farther down the road than me, “What are some of the things you did right in raising your kids?”

Asking this question has helped me so many times.  And when I look at the spiritual giants in my life, one of the things that it seems many of them have in common is that they keep a journal.

Bad News, Good News

At first, I thought that was bad news because, like I said, I hated the idea of keeping a journal.  But, because I had this desire to know God more & this desire to go deeper in my relationship with him, I bought my first moleskin journal & began.  The good news is that I knew this was something I could do.  Anyone could do it.  It didn’t require a lot of money or time.  It didn’t require a seminary degree or advanced training.  All I needed was pen & paper & a few minutes a day to get started.  So I did.  And I would say this is one practice that has literally changed my life over the past few years.  Here’s what I’ve learned.

5 Reasons to Journal & How it Changed Me:

When I journal my prayers to God…

1. My words become more intentional & purposeful.
   I can tell a difference between when I just pray – you know, quietly to myself in my mind – & when I journal my prayers.  I don’t waste words.  I don’t say things just to say them.  My words are more thoughtful, more direct, more centered & more meaningful.  When I pray for others I have to think about & name exactly what I’m asking for on their behalf.  When I praise God for all He’s done I can write down & archive all the ways He’s helped me.  Writing down my prayers helps me be more intentional & purposeful in my prayer life.
2. I can look back & see how He’s been faithful.
   Maybe one of the biggest payoffs that is obvious, even though I didn’t anticipate it, is the reality that I can go back through the prayers I’ve written & remember!  I can remember what I asked God for & then realize how He’s answered.  How many times have I prayed to God for something & then not thanked Him for it?  And the reason I never thanked Him, to be honest, is that I forgot I even asked for it!  It’s powerful to look back through the weeks, months & years to see what was on my heart & mind at that time.  And then, now that I’m down the road from that place when I was so worried about those things, I have the perspective to see how God has worked & been so kind & faithful to me.  By the way, this is a great way to build your faith.  When you pray & then go back & see how God has worked on your behalf & answered those prayers you prayed weeks, months or years before, your faith in God explodes!

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1. I’m not as easily distracted or interrupted.
   I don’t know about you, but I’m easily distracted & interrupted.  That’s kind of the name of the game these days.  We live in a world where constant interruption is a way of life.  But when I silence my devices & create a space & a few minutes to journal my thoughts to God it’s easier for me, with pen & paper in hand, to stay focused in prayer.  If I’m just praying silently to myself, my mind can wander & I can be easily distracted.  Writing my prayers is a huge help in keeping me focused in my time with God.
2. I’m more present with Him.
   It’s harder than ever to be fully present with people, most of all God.  After all, He’s got that invisible thing working for Him.  It’s hard enough to be fully present with the actual person sitting across the table from you.  Being present with an invisible God can be all the more challenging.  But when I write His name on the page & begin speaking to him with pen in hand, I’m transported into His presence & I’m able to be more present in prayer that way than in almost any other way.  We have to be disciplined to be present with people & we have to be disciplined to be present with God.

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1. I can process my thoughts & clarify what I’m feeling.
   One of the best things for me when journaling is that it gives me a place & a space to work out, process & clarify exactly what I’m thinking, feeling & going through.  Sometimes my thoughts get entangled.  Sometimes I’m not completely sure what’s going on inside of me.  I have no doubt God is at work in me to work all this out.  Journaling creates a place & a space for His Spirit to work in me to work all that out.  My journal is very personal.  I’m not writing there for anyone else.  It’s not for public consumption.  So I can be honest.  I can be real.  I can just let the thoughts & words flow & work out stuff.  Journaling gives me a place for God to help me work all that out & get a clearer picture of what I’m feeling.

And here’s one more…

BONUS: Giving it to God.
One more thing I’ve really come to love about journaling is that is allows me to place my cares & concerns in God’s hands in a tangible way.  We’re encouraged to do this in 1 Peter 5.7.  But writing down those cares & concerns & giving them to God in written form has a way of allowing me to release them more completely into His hands.  And when I do that, I seem to worry less about those problems because I’ve already turned those over to Him in a very literal way.

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David did it.
I’ve often wondered if King David ever had any intention of having his journal, the Psalms, published & read by millions of people?   After reading through the Psalms, I’m guessing the answer to that question is NO!  David shares raw emotions.  He doesn’t hold anything back when writing his words to God.  He’s exuberant in praise & unfiltered in His desire to see his enemies silenced.  But David was known as a man after God’s own heart.  If we didn’t have the psalms we would probably wonder, “Why?”  But because we have access to his journal we can see, we can understand, David was a man after God’s own heart.

So may you be a man, a woman, after God’s own heart as well.  May you seek Him & find Him.  May you ever be drawn closer to Him.  And may His face shine upon you & give you peace.

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