My Spiritual Journal

                                                              Good morning to you! Greetings in the Name of Jesus! 

 

How was your night? Mine was amazing. I slept so good. God is helping me to sleep really good. Many nights in the last few years I would wake up in the night to go, and then not go back to sleep for a very long time. I didn't even get up to go at all last night. Sometimes I do that 2-5 times a night. But it has only been once a night lately and I have even had a few 0 times lately. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! 

 

Went to the allergy doctor the other day along with getting my two allergy shots I get once a week. He wanted me to raise the head of the bed up 3-6 inches so we got a cedar fence post last night to lay under the plywood under our mattress. (We still have an old waterbed frame for our bed. My husband got it a couple years before we got married-about 38 years or so ago.) Anyway, I am a side sleeper and when I woke up both my shoulders were sore. But I slept great. Oh the woes of getting old!

I was writing in my journal this morning. Have you ever used one? I have been writing letters to God in my Spiritual Journal for many, many years. I have written in Prayer Journal books, notebooks, blessings journal, whatever I could put with my Bible and write in. You can also buy a leather bound or really nice blank journal. Most everywhere sells journals these days. 

 

Somewhere I learned that you could write down your needs, wants, prayer requests, answers to prayer, and blessings and share them with the Lord. It may have been at a ladies conference years ago that I heard of this practice. Maybe someone mentioned how we used to write in a diary as a kid. And I did! But anyway, I have several volumes of spiritual journals that I have written in from beginning to end. The one that goes farthest back that I can find is April of 1998. I know that I started writing in one before that but I haven't seen them since I wrote in them. One day I will find the rest of them and add them to my bookshelf. They didn't mean as much to me then as they do now. When you look back and see your needs, etc. and your requests and then think of how God has answered those prayers, it is amazing. HE is amazing!

"When he (the king) takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel." 

Deut. 17: 18-20

You can buy a notebook for next to nothing, well, close, and you start in your morning devotion time, or whenever you do your devotions. You can start your letters to God with "Dear Heavenly Father", or "Oh God", or "Lord" or however you wish. And then I praise Him on paper. "You Lord are so great and greatly to be praised" or however you want. And I praise Him quite a bit at the beginning and then throughout my writings. You can also keep a prayer request list in the front or back of the book so you can refer to those who need prayer. Sometimes you have so many people you can't remember them all. And then you can add or subtract from the list as needed so I do it in pencil. 

This practice of writing in a journal has been one of the most meaningful practices of my Christian life. Be open with God when you write in it. It might be an adjustment for you to do that. You don't have to worry about what God thinks about you. He knows more about you than you do and He loves you despite what He knows. Be transparent. You can include:

 

            Your thoughts from your Bible reading

            Always put the date when you write

            Bible verses or summaries

            Your own thoughts about God or anything

            Details of your life today or yesterday

            Key events, concerns or worries

            Great things that are happening then or now

            There is no right or wrong to keeping a

                  journal

            Keep in mind that this is a personal journey                   with God. It is very personal and private                   for your eyes only unless you choose 

                  to share it.

 

As I said, it is very important to keep your journal as private as you choose. If you need to hide it, do so. There may be things you have experienced that you share with God that you have never shared with others. Then, there may be moments you have had when it was impossible to keep from sharing them. You must share when God does something great or awesome.

When not using a journal along with your time with the Lord, the 5 minutes or so you spend may seem like 30. But once you do use a journal the 30-45 minutes with the Lord may seem like 5. The journal has become an encouragement as I look back and read of the ways that God has led in my life. 

So, I challenge you to think about the practice of keeping a spiritual journal. Don't stress over whether you write in it every day. There have been times I only wrote once a week or once a month or occasionally and them went back to once or twice a week. It doesn't matter. But doing it does. You will realize that one day. Anything that improves the quality of time you spend with God will be a move in the right direction.

And for me it is amazing! So, think about it. Give it a try. You will be glad you did.

 

"Jesus did many other things as well. If every 

one of them were written down, I suppose 

 that even the whole world would not have 

room for the books that would be written."

 John 21:25

 

So, God wrote His Word. He used many people to accomplish that. He can also use us to write down our spiritual journey to help us draw closer to Him.

 

Have a blessed day!

 

Les