“God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to His eyes.”
—Psalm 18:24 (The Message Bible)
Journaling Your Journey is your invitation to take an intimate journey-of-your-heart to the very heart of God through prayer-journaling (and other forms of journaling which we shall discuss in the future). The time-honored spiritual practice of journaling can help you connect deeply with God by allowing you freely to express yourself to Him and receive all He wishes to offer to you. By communicating with Him in your journal, you can enjoy God’s loving presence, explore your purpose and passion, appreciate life’s beauty and mystery, answer its questions, and leave a permanent record of God’s faithfulness in your life. Think of your journal as God’s personal gift to you and yours to Him—the book of your heart—and a legacy that your family will someday treasure.
I do not advocate journaling in order to explore the “self” simply for the sake of self-knowledge or discovery. Rather I encourage you to open your heart to God in order to know Him and seek His guidance in understanding yourself. This God-directed search elevates the journaling process to a spiritual art that can have great meaning and transforming power in your life. When you journal in this way, you really do realize that God is rewriting the text of your life in a way that pleases Him and benefits you.
Sometimes it can seem difficult to communicate with God. Because He is invisible, He might seem unreachable, distant, or remote. Because God is awesome, talking to Him can seem intimidating. When you think of prayer, it might conjure up formal, religious language that feels awkward, unnatural, or difficult to use. Even if you are able to pray aloud effortlessly, it’s easy to lose your train of thought, especially if you converse with God while on the run—in the car, in the check-out line, at your child’s soccer game. You need a way to talk to God that is simple and accessible.
Prayer-journaling, like no other form of interaction with God, allows you to focus clearly while seeing the progression of your thoughts on the page. I suggest writing an actual “love letter” to God, which frees you from formality by encouraging intimate, honest conversation with Someone you love and Who loves you. When you write from your heart, in your own words, in your own way about what you are actually feeling and experiencing, you will never run out of things to say. And because God loves you unconditionally, you can express anything to Him, and He will still love you. This is a tremendously reassuring and liberating fact.
Prayer-journaling will also slow you down, allowing you more time to talk with and listen to God. The more time you spend with Him, the closer the two of you will become. It could well be that writing your love letters to God will become the highlight of your day—a time you anticipate with eagerness and joy.
To explore the art of written prayer, there is no one-two-three formula to pull out of a hat. Prayer-journaling isn’t confined to a straight progression from point A to point Z. As author Robert Benson observes, it is a process no more linear “than one’s intellectual or emotional life is linear. It is cyclical; it turns and turns and turns again, and carries us along with it.”(i) Yet, prayer-journaling is not a meaningless circling like a dog chasing its tail or rounding his bed twenty times before plunking down.
This cyclic process of prayer-journaling is more like a spiral, rising ever upward to God. There is never a sense in which you will have ultimately arrived, but you will have grown, changed, and discovered, only to be ready to begin again. Yet you will begin with new eyes. What a difference! As poet T.S. Eliot understood, “We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.”(ii)
The brilliant artist Picasso declared, “Painting cannot be taught. It can only be found.” Neither can prayer-journaling be taught. It can only be discovered, then explored and experienced—because it is the vehicle for your personal interaction with God. Your journal will be as unique as you are—as unique as your relationship with Him.
But just as an art teacher shares her passion, I hope to provide you with inspiration through my personal reflections about how I poured out my heart to God and how He has changed me as a result. I can also describe how to arrange your “artist’s studio” or pack up your paints to work en plein-air—which canvases, brushes, paints, and thinners to use—and even demonstrate some useful brushstrokes as you read some of my own written prayers.
However, only you can choose to pick up your brush; only you can decide the subject of your composition; only you can select which paints to use, how to mix them, and what brushstrokes to employ. Only you can develop your own style. Only you can paint with passion. Only you can pour out your heart and soul onto the canvas. Only you can create. In the end, only you can sign your composition. But with God’s help, I can encourage you.
Next time, I’ll share about the “tips and tools of the trade”—gentle suggestions that will enhance your journaling journey.
Your Invitation: The author Rosalind Rinker said, “Prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other.” Though I will give you further instruction on writing love letters to God, start writing now by simply having a short conversation with Him on paper. Imagine that He, the Lover of your soul, has drawn up a chair next to you. Confide in Him absolutely anything that is on your heart, and begin to experience the joy of personal communication with God!
© Lynn D. Morrissey. Permission to reprint any or all of this material is required
Journaling Your Journey 