The Counseling Corner
By Rev. Judith T. Lester, B.Min. M.Th
Journaling is a spiritual discipline where one writes down prayer requests, answered prayers, thoughts, notes, and insights taken during personal devotional time with God before and after Bible study. Writing down one’s thoughts allows an opportunity to think deeper and clearer and draw one closer to God. If you have never engaged in journaling, dedicate a notebook today to begin recording your spiritual journey. This week, compliments of the article entitled “Christian Journaling 101: It’s A Piece of Cake” at www. squidoo.com, we will be giving insight as to journaling and its spiritual benefits.
B.MIN. M.TH
First, Christian journaling requires prayer. Pray before you start journaling. Ask God to reveal His presence and to speak to you. Pray in your journal. Write down prayer requests, answered prayer requests, praises and confessions. Tell God how amazing He is. Tell God what you are struggling with and how you need Him. By writing these things down, you can come back to it in the future and see how God has worked in your life. It also allows you to simply be more aware of God’s works in your life. Pray after you’re done journaling. Thank God for what He has taught you through journaling, and ask God to continue to teach you throughout the day.
Secondly, write, write, write! Write your prayer requests. Write your praises. Write your confessions. Write your goals. Write your current life situation. Write the reference of the passages that you have read. Jot down a short summary of it and then start writing your response to it. If you have questions, write them down. If you don’t understand, make a point of it and write it down. If you like a particular section, jot that down too. This is your chance to make some in-depth thinking and document your thoughts. Really take in what you have read, think about it and pray about it, and then write on it. This will help you come up with things you have never thought of before. God will truly use this time to speak to you and teach new things to you. Another tip when writing is to write in different colors. Separate the colors that you use for prayer requests, praises, confessions, notes and thoughts. This will help organize your thoughts and will prove to be very beneficial when you go back to read past entries.
Next Week: Benefits of Small Group Bible Study The writer does not assume responsibility in any way for readers’ efforts to apply or utilize information or recommendations made in these articles, as they may not be necessarily appropriate for every situation to which they may refer. Rather, the objective is strictly informative and educational. If you would like to contact Rev. Lester, write to her c/o P.O. Box 121, Brookfield, WI. 53008.
