"Lighting the Fire"
Jotting – Week 10

Prayer Journals

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

It’s a rare child who asks his parents a question without waiting for an answer. Children persist until they get attention, even if Mom is on the phone or Dad is reading the newspaper. ... How many of us seek what is lost–without finding it? We keep on looking until we find, or until we give it up as hopeless. ... Not many of us go to a friend’s house and knock, then turn away to go back home without the knock being answered. At times, we may knock a second or even a third time.

In the Bible passage above, Jesus is saying that we need to be persistent in our prayers, constantly bringing before God our needs and our cares.

But when you pray, do you look for the answers God gives? Is it enough to ask, seek, and knock without discovering God’s heart in the process? King David said in Psalm 27:13-14: “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.  Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”

When we have seen and heard and experienced answers to prayers, we learn to trust God all the more with our life’s desires and the troubles that haunt us. We can go to Scripture to search out how God answered the prayers of His faithful people time after time. It’s written there for our learning, for our encouragement.  We can “Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men” (Psalm 66:5).

We also can record God’s answers to our prayers. One way to do so is to keep a prayer journal. By writing down how and when God keeps His promises to us, how our prayers are answered, how our thanksgivings have resulted in unexpected blessings, we can grow in faith, become more aware of God’s working in our lives and in the world, become more disciplined in our faith life as we seek God’s will, and begin to recognize how He fulfills our needs for His purpose.

A journal can be a very formal item–such journals are available in Bible bookstores–or kept in a spiral notebook or even on your computer. Make several columns: one for the date you make a special request of the Lord; one for what the request is; one for the date on which you see an answer; and one to write how God answered. As you prepare this journal, ask the Lord to open your eyes to see how He moves in the lives of His people, how He might use you to answer someone else’s prayer; and how to pray more and more in keeping with His will and His plan for you in the work of His kingdom.

You might want to make a journal with different pages: thanksgiving prayers; praise prayers; requests for family and friends; requests for yourself; requests for the nation and public officials; a list of congregation members who have requested prayers; a page to list prayers beseeching God to break down Satan’s hold over Christians: those held in bondage for their faith; Christian marriages; Christian parents; and that churches will be true to the Word of God.

In your journal, keep a page on missions: the work, the people, any burden God lays on your heart for local, district (go to  http://www.txdistlcms.org/tpim/ for the Texas District’s “Partners in Mission” to discover prayer needs), national (go to http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=8052 for North American Missions), and world-wide missions (go to http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=1063 for a monthly prayer calendar from LCMS World Missions). Perhaps organizations or prayer groups within your congregation can pray for specific missionaries, projects, etc., then report at a gathering or in a newsletter how prayers have been answered–from the recorded entries in the journal.

By keeping a written record of ways God has worked in your life and in the requests you have made for others–and has answered those prayers, you will be able to give witness to others about what God has done for you.

When John the Baptist sent his followers to Jesus with questions, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them’” (Matthew 11:4-5).

The book of Acts records  two different occasions where reports were made of what God was doing through Paul: “Now when they (Barnabas and Paul) had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27). “When [Paul] had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry” (Acts 21:19).

So start your journal in order that you and others may see the Lord working in your life and in the life of His Church, “That (we) may see and know, And consider and understand together, That the hand of the LORD has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it” (Isaiah 41:20) and again: “You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them” (Isaiah 48:6).

Pray: Heavenly Father, forgive our shortcomings, our closed eyes and closed hearts for refusing or not recognizing Your power to act in our lives. Open our eyes that we may see Your glory and Your will being done in our lives and in the lives of fellow believers. Increase our sight and understanding. Help us to declare Your goodness, Your care, and especially Your love for us in Jesus to all we encounter so that Your Kingdom may come and Your name be glorified. In the strong name of Jesus. Amen.