If you do not use a spiritual journal, you might want to consider using one. Journaling is a great way to write down what God is teaching you and pouring out your heart in prayer. I have been journaling for over twenty years and my journaling is like a spiritual path I can look back on and see where I have been.
I am always blessed when I read over some of my journal entries over the years. I can see my struggles, victories and confusion on paper and most importantly is see God’s unseen hand working through my situations.
Journaling is a way of digging around in my heart so I can see what is going on. Most of the time I never understood what what happening until I wrote it down. Journaling has always been good therapy for me. I can’t explain it but somehow just getting it out on to paper helps me understand and think through things. I guess you might say I think well with a pen or by writing. Perhaps that is why I enjoy writing my sermons out in manuscript form. I have tried to break the habit but I just can’t.
I hope you will consider journaling. One of the things I like about Mathis’ article is that he leaves the approach to journaling wide open. There is no particular form you should follow or as Mathis says: there is no wrong way to journal.
While I have lots of articles and helps for journaling, my typical journal is usually a letter to God. I begin by addressing God as Father and conclude my entry with Your Son, Michael. There is no telling what I will write but these are the two staples in my journaling. I always need to remember God is my Father and I am his son.
One of the greatest joys I have had in journaling is passing this habit of grace along to my daughters. I cannot tell you what it means to walk in their rooms and find them writing in their spiritual journal.
I hope you will get a good pen and some good paper or a journal or create a file on your computer and begin pouring out your heart to God in prayer and in your thoughts about His word. Write down your struggles, your anxiety, your joys, your hopes, dreams and goals in life. Pray for people with a pen. Pray for your family with a pen. (In case you cannot tell, I use a pen a paper for journaling and not a computer.)
Click on the link below to read David Mathis’ article.
Enjoy!
Pastor Michael
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/journal-as-a-pathway-to-joy