Six Reasons to Write your Prayer

By Dave Keep
I’ve been journaling my prayers of late and am finding it to be very rewarding. Perhaps you don’t type fast, or your hand-writing isn’t any good, so I’m sure this isn’t for everyone, but here are six reasons I think you should consider putting your prayers on paper:

• Continuity. When you write down your thoughts/prayers you know where you’ve been and where you’re going so there’s a cohesiveness about them.
  
• Consistency. In my case, I journal on YouVersion, so there is a date stamp on each prayer journal entry. So if I haven’t prayed (at least in this kind of intentional way) for a day or two, it is apparent. This helps me cultivate a greater consistency in coming to the Lord with my praise and requests.
• Brevity. We tend to get wordy in our praying, don’t we? Since writing and/or typing is more difficult we will likely say what we mean and mean what we say. Thus we are more direct in our praying and more specific in our requests. That’s a good thing!
  
• Focus. If you’re anything like me, your mind tends to wander in prayer. However, in writing my prayers I am better able to stay on track and on mission.
  
• Reflection. As with any journal, writing your prayers allows you the opportunity to go back days, or weeks, or months to see the things you were praying about, as well as how God responded to your prayers.
  
• Praise. Then, you can offer praise for the answers given. Sometimes we move from one prayer need to the next without expressing thanksgiving for how God has come through on our behalf.

Write your prayer and you can also record the answer to that prayer. This will elicit worship and praise!