Happy New Year and welcome to Powerful Prayer Tip Tuesday! Here is my tip for you:
Watch.
And.
Pray.
As my watch was counting down the last few minutes of 2014, I was reviewing my structured prayer journal (The Prayer Closet Organizer inside my book Organizing Your Prayer Closet) And what I saw was – God. is. faithful.
In 2014 I logged 359 prayer requests.
God said Yes to 254 of them.
He said No to 28 of my petitions.
69 of them are still open or ongoing needs,
and I do not know how eight of them turned out.
I don’t won’t to focus too much on how many times God said Yes or No, but how often God answered my requests whether it was a Yes or a No. God is faithful. He is engaged in our lives even if we are not that engaged in Him.
If you are not quite sure if God answers any of your prayers, I can assure you that He does. I did not realize God was answering any of mine until I began journaling them and recording what He was doing. I have said this before and I will say it again – prayer journaling is like bringing things from the spiritual realm into our visual presence where we can physically see the hand of God moving in our life.
It’s all about discovery.
I can recall older generations of people whom were weary of new discoveries. Whether it was in space or other technology. If something went wrong, there was a sect of people who falsely believed that God was punishing them for getting too high and mighty, so to say. Have you experienced this???
But, I’ve never felt that way. I think God loves it when we discover something new about the way He intricately created the universe, our bodies, the seasons and other. It’s a great way for us to discover more about His wisdom and goodness. His intelligent design is beyond comparison!
When I prayer journal, it gives me this uncommon advantage into discovery. There may be some self-discovery, but it is more about the things I discover about God. I can see how His timing is always perfect. I can see how a No turned out to be my best Yes. I see Him loving me, guarding me and guiding me.[tweetthis]I see #God loving me, guarding me and guiding me #ShePrayerJournals[/tweetthis]
Do I think that my discoveries alienate God? Of course not. That would be as silly as the thought of God becoming annoyed by our further discoveries of His creation.
As a matter of fact, there are some scriptures where God prompts us to discover Him in Prayer. Here are a couple:
But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and WATCH UNTO PRAYER. 1 Peter 4:7 King James Bible
AND
Take heed, WATCH AND PRAY, for ye do not know when the time is: Mark 13:33 Darby Bible Translation
God is actually directing us to discover Him in prayer, and oh, how I love doing so through structured prayer journaling. He wants us to discover Him, but we must learn to see Him at work – I wrote a great post about getting a sneak peak of God at work here. As we pray, He wants us to watch what He does.
DARE TO DISCOVER – WATCH AND PRAY!
Here are some of my previous year-end messages about discovering God through structured prayer journaling.
Dear Guest,
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Award-winning author Gina Duke is a wife, mom and the Director of Women’s Ministry at her local church. With a B.S. in Organizational Leadership, she is able to bring a clear word for authentic Christian living. Through her book, “Organizing Your Prayer Closet: A New and Life-Changing Way to Pray” (Abingdon Press), she imparts 1 Peter 4:7 with the gift of structured prayer journaling. If you would like to schedule Gina to speak on prayer or host a prayer journaling workshop, click here for more information. You may also follow her on Twitter and Instagram @TheGinaDuke.
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~Karrilee~ says
January 6, 2015 at 10:26 amI am a huge believer in Prayer and in Journaling! I am less structured about it – but love to be able to go back and look through pages to see what the Lord has done! Great post!
Bethany says
January 7, 2015 at 9:54 amI LOVE your numbers! While I don’t blog my prayers, I do journal them and record dates of clear answers. It is SO encouraging! I never thought about adding the numbers…I think I’ll start doing that this year!
ginaduke says
January 7, 2015 at 11:04 amBethany, I’ve been doing this since 2001, and have discovered that God says Yes more than He says No. I’m not sure most people realize this. Thanks for stopping by!
Britney says
January 7, 2015 at 10:56 amThank you so much for the encouragement and the practical tools to get jump-started.
Jenifer says
January 7, 2015 at 3:39 pmLOVE LOVE LOVE this!! I love journaling. It is so important to me to journal my quiet time with God. I absolutely love how you went back and counted the prayer requests and answers. So neat. I’ve gone back from time to time to see what I wrote and how God answered, but I’ve never kept a running tally, for lack of a better term, and love that you did it.
God bless and thank you for linking with Woman to Woman’s Word Filled Wednesday! Please join us again next Wednesday.
ginaduke says
January 7, 2015 at 6:36 pmGlad you like, Jenifer. I’ll be back!
Kristi Miller says
January 9, 2015 at 12:10 pmThis is my first year prayer journaling and I’ve already been so blessed by it. I originally decided to do it awhile back after reading one of your posts from Women Leading Women, then today I stumbled upon this as part of Fellowship Fridays. The last couple of days have been pretty rough and I fell behind on my journaling, and I think God is using this as a reminder that times like these are especially when I need to be diving into those pages. Thank you and God bless.
ginaduke says
January 9, 2015 at 2:07 pmThanks for sharing, Kristi. There are days that I don’t get to it though rare, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t prayed. When I get a moment, I catch myself back up, making notes of things I am praying for, things God is speaking to me, impressions, etc. I use to help me see what God is doing in my prayers. I am glad you are enjoying prayer journaling.
ellen says
January 11, 2015 at 1:52 pmHi! I just linked to your page from Women Living Well. I was wondering where you got the particular journal you are using in the photo and it’s name. I’d love to have one. I’ve never journalled my prayers, but think this would be perfect! Thank you in advance!
ginaduke says
January 11, 2015 at 4:22 pmHi, Ellen. Thank you for reaching out. The journal I use is the one that it housed inside the book of Organizing Your Prayer Closet: A New and Life-Changing Way to Pray (Abingdon Press). I am its author. I designed the Prayer Closet Organizer (structured prayer journal) and we published in 2013. You can pick it up at most Christian bookstores and typically order it online for a discounted rate. If you look at my website, you will see a page that will give you more information on my book and other helpful prayer journaling tips. I am even doing a small group session on Facebook you can join where I am teaching by video. Thank you again for your interest in my book! ~gina