Keeping a Prayer Journal

Normally, an individual wouldn’t attend training without taking notes, so when it comes to learning about the God of the universe we can't expect heroic results with mediocre effort. It's gonna take a little more attention than reading Facebook.

Good Notes

• The Bible is a Journal. It is public, general; your journal is private, specific. Likewise the Bible, it should contain anything of your specific experience (stories, principles, prophecies, songs, etc.) that will recall God's specific love.
• Fifth Gospel. That's the name some spiritual directors refer to your own unique account of your story with Jesus—and you're the only one who can write it.
• Easier Tests. Once during a trial I searched for messages God gave to me and I came upon a vision a friend received of Jesus throwing confetti in the air, laughing regarding me.  Re-reading it years later I laughed again, making it hard to remain discouraged.  If I hadn't recorded it I might have forgotten about it forever, but now even you know about it.
• Reminders. It's amazing how often God uses phrases such "keep in mind" and "focus on Me."  It's as if he likes to build on previous conversations rather than having to re-teach. A journal shows we repeatedly ask questions He has already given us good working answers to. In fact, the Greek word "truth" literally means "un-forgetting".
• A Solid Mind. A computer has short-term memory (RAM—quick but not stored), and long-term memory (disk—permanent storage).  The former is like your mind; the latter is like a journal. You are best with both!
• A Good Tip. Simply write one sentence every few days of your best guess at what God is saying. There's no burden to create a documentary (a docu-memory), just a memory trigger.
• The Full Pic. Each encounter is like a dot in the picture. We'll soon see patterns, eventually revealing the face of Christ.