This is the neatest side-benefit from structured prayer journaling – the ability to see what God has done in my prayer life. Every year-end I talley up what God has done, which continually confirms that God says Yes more than He says No. I talk about this in my book, Organizing Your Prayer Closet, which includes a 52-week prayer journal, in chapter 4.
Here is my data:
363 Total Prayer Requests
279 Yes
39 No
6 Unknown
39 Open (I am going to carry over 26 of them into 2014)
On average, God answered 5 of my prayer requests with a yes weekly. I received 10 Yeses in one week! This is encouraging to me, and I continually realize how important and necessary prayer is. There was only one week where I received more No’s than Yeses. 4 No’s was the most I received in any given week. An important lesson from the No’s that I have received over the years of structured prayer journaling is that I am not bothered by the No’s. Some of them are actually a Yes! I believe God is sovereign and so many times I will realize the wisdom of His No later on.
So, why do I share this? I share it because I want my subscribers to know that God is a God of Yes, and I don’t think we always realize that. I think most people, in general, believe He is a God of No. I also hope that you realize that you can know what God is doing in your prayer life, which I why I like sharing a visual to demonstrate it. I am afraid that by and large, Christians throw up prayer requests, but never know what God is doing with their petition, and that is not an effective prayer life.
Please see my pie chart below. (The data I just shared with you is represented in percentages.)
“But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us.” Romans 8:37
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