Episode 28: The Power of Prayer Journaling

Why is prayer journaling so powerful? As we move into new seasons of life and new obstacles, we tend to forget the struggles we overcame in the past through Jesus. However, when we look back at prayer journals from the past, we can recount many ways God has been faithful in our lives. Sit down with Stephanie as she shares her experience of transcribing her many journals from years of handwriting her prayers. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey friends, welcome to the Only God podcast, where we share stories only God can write. I'm your host, Stephanie L. Jones, and each episode we'll dive into powerful testimonies, have great conversations, and encouragement that remind us when the impossible happens, it's only God. Let's get started. Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with another episode of the Only God podcast, sharing stories, only God and right. And today I wanted to hop on here and share with you something that I've been working on. And I feel like the timing of this project is only God. So I want to back up. Last year, I really felt like, and I might have shared this before, but I really felt like the Lord was asking me to surrender one week to Him. I call it my week of surrender. It was life-changing. It was amazing. And it was really just getting up in the morning, sitting with God, praying, doing a lot of listening, being silent, like not talking as much, not rambling on, reading scripture, reading some of like Christian books that I have, just kind of wherever I felt like the Lord was leading me, outside doing prayer walks. Anyway, and I just like uh coming upon that, I really felt like it was something the Lord was asking me to do. And something similar happened a couple of weeks back, a month back, is I really felt like the Lord saying, get in your old prayer Bible, prayer journals, and start transcribing them. Um, I have a couple of books that have been sitting on the shelf. I have a new book that like I want to start writing, and I know a lot about like content for those books are in my prayer journals. And so I was just like looking over my schedule, and I actually had a week where the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had no appointments. And that was actually this week that I'm recording this. This is a Thursday. And I was excited. Like my first step was to find all my prayer journals. I I had 15 that needed to be transcribed. Um, never do that, never wait. If you want to transcribe your prayer journals, I sent a text to my girlfriend Kelsey, and I was like, please let never let me do this again. Like, let me get one through a prayer journal and I type it and keep going. And you might say, Stephanie, just type it out. Like, why do you even write? I don't know. I just feel like there is something about sitting with pen and paper, sitting in the silence, listening to God. I don't know. I just feel like being on technology is different. I could be wrong, prove me wrong. You know, like you may have a different idea. I found that with writing also. Um, I will sit down and type some books, but um, I just feel like the words flow better when I'm handwriting. So it does take a little bit of extra time. Anyways, I looked at my calendar. I had three days scheduled for this week just to write Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And I gotta admit, Monday was a long day. Um, and then I just Monday was a rough day because um, if you don't know, my husband's a state trooper, and I'm making a film on a murder of our friend who was killed in the line of duty. And there was an officer in Indiana shot, Brian Um Elliott, officer Brian Elliott from Beach Grove. And there's just something when in Indiana, like it doesn't even have to be an Indiana state trooper, we don't have to know them, but there's something about an officer being killed in our state, and then there's another layer. I can't describe it when an officer is shot. And so I, even though I had, I think it was Monday all day for journaling and typing, I watched his funeral and the procession and his funeral service at the graveside, and it just took me out. Um, I don't know, it was just very, very hard. And then the next day after that, or that evening, and sorry if you go like fact check, I might have my days off a little bit. There were two deputies in Christian County, Missouri that were shot and killed, two other officers that were shot, and it just oh, just hard, just hard. But I gotta say, is I really still stayed like, okay, I'm gonna be committed. Maybe I'm not gonna get as much done as what I wanted to or what I thought was gonna get done. Um, also, we have our house for sale, and my husband and I thought the showing was last week, is this week for to do an open house. And so again, that was booked on Wednesday. I had that day blocked to write, which meant all of Wednesday morning was getting the house ready. Then people at the house, I had to leave the house. Like it just so, anyways, I want to share this because a lot of times we have like good intentions or like we feel like God has called us to do one thing, we block out our time, we are ready, we are excited, and then life goes sideways, life happens, but a couple of things. One is even though I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, is I still every day made myself sit down. Like Monday, I think I got through one journal. Tuesday, I got through one journal. Yesterday, I don't think I did anything on a Wednesday. Today, on Thursday, I'm back at it. I'm gonna get through another journal. And sometimes we have to really like reset our expectations that um we've set for ourselves. You know, I never felt like God saying, get all 15 of those journals done in three days. Um, but I think it was more about putting the time on the calendar, taking the steps to find the journal, starting the project. And you might be thinking, Stephanie, why is this like an only God thing? Well, it's an only God thing because as I have been typing my journals, you know, my husband and I are going through this process of selling our house. And literally today, as I'm going through my journals, it is very similar to where my husband and I were in 2020. I was praying for God to move us to southern Indiana, to Indianapolis. My husband put in for a couple of jobs and didn't get them. We were praying, were we supposed to sell our house, not sell our house? Then we knew we were supposed to, and it was praying for a buyer. Like just, I don't know, I can see very similar situation. The other thing, too, is as I'm going through my journals, God is reminding me of his goodness and his faithfulness and the prayers that he has answered. Um, I've been screenshotting some of those prayers and sending them to friends who God has healed, God has moved in their life, God has brought them through difficult times or even good things. And it was just like this reminder of God's got us, but we have to take time to remember what God has done. And I just like it's just so cool. Even things I was wrestling with at the time seemed so big and so heavy, and now I'm five years out, six years out from those prayers, and you I can just look back and see how God worked everything out, or you know, this is why it's so important to sit with God and be silent, be still, be silent. There's one particular thing in there is um, I God had given me my children's book series, my giving gal series. And um I was just even praying, like, Lord, give me a book. Like, I I have an idea of what this is. And then I was praying that God would open a door for me to get coaching with Michelle Medlock Adams. And I reached out and she said yes, which you're gonna hear her. She's gonna be on an upcoming podcast. And I documented all that. I get to look back and see not only of me reaching out to somebody that at the time I really didn't know, but to now someone I call my good friend. And she's edited all my children's books. And I was praying for like ideas for like what am I gonna write for my next one? Like you could see where I had one idea and I'd written that and praying for the next one, and now I'm getting ready to publish the fourth book. And so it's just so cool to see that when we are faithful and we just keep grinding and every day wasn't perfect. I could see in there where I was wrestling like, do I sell this book to a publisher? Um, or do I keep it for myself and just like, or do I own it? And there was just little times where I would write about what I thought God was calling me to do. And then, you know, a couple days later, a month later, in certain scenarios, there would be a confirmation by something I heard or listened or a person I met. And these are I really just challenge you to write down your prayers because we will forget. I will forget, I had forgotten all these details. Um, I had a couple of blank journals that I had started with, and then one of the ones that I really like was um Mark Batterson's Draw the Circle. And that's one that I think I did like two cycles through that. So I actually used the journal and then I read the journal and used a blank journal. But then, so this was this one was in 2020. Um, I in my other journals they were like 17, 18, 19. This one's 2020. Um, but then 2021, which actually through my journal journaling of gratitude and prayer and scripture, I had gone on a trip and I was just like, I had to carry all these journals with me, and I didn't like that. And so that's when I created Thank You Notes to God, a prayer and gratitude journal. And I I honestly created it for myself, but other people love it. Um so look at this. Like, these are the ones that I have filled out. Um, and I I use them myself, and I'm excited to see what's in there um and what I was grateful for and what I was praying for. Um, but anyways, I just wanted to get on here and say, like, one, when God nudges you to make space, make time for something, take it serious. Like, what are your priorities in life? And for me, um, not that I am obedient every time, I miss the mark a lot of the time, but you know, blocking out the time and going, okay, because I always feel like the Lord has something for us when we do that. And uh I'm I'm seeing it this week of just going back, reading my prayers. I've been in tears multiple times. I know it's shocking. I cry a lot. Um, but anyways, so I just really challenge you to get a prayer journal and um get in the habit of writing your prayers and then going back and remembering what God has done, his faithfulness, and be thankful for that. So thank you for listening to another episode of the Only God Podcast, sharing stories only God could write. And I just really encourage you to share this episode with a friend. If you'd share it on social media, if you would like and review it, I would love it. Thank you. Hey friends, thank you for joining me today on the Only God Podcast. I hope today's story encouraged your faith and reminded you that God is still writing our stories each and every day. If you were inspired by this episode, please share, subscribe, and tell a friend. And to stay connected with me and find out about all my books and resources and events, go to shineforwardcreative.com. Have a fabulous day.