Journaling Guide

One of the secrets to letting the Spirit guide you is learning the beautiful spiritual discipline of journaling. Journaling is simply a tool to help you pray and discern the voice and direction of the Spirit’s leadership in your life. It is a conversation with God on paper.

Almost always the Spirit communes with our spirit through our thoughts. Often, prayer is merely the exercise of disciplined, spiritual thinking where we let the Spirit control our thoughts. And as we do, we learn how to be led by the Spirit.

The key to journaling is listening. Too often our prayer is nothing more than talking at God. Journaling gives space to sit and listen and wait, and then to record what you sense the Spirit prompting in your mind. When I'm journaling, I usually ask the Lord for 5 main areas of thought:

1. Gratitude - what do I need to thank the Lord for? Where have I seen His gracious hand? I almost always begin with this, thanking Him for the tangible things He has done (Psalm 9:1).

2. Confession - I ask the Lord to search my heart and expose sin. I listen and think and let the Spirit bring conviction (John 16:8), and I write it down as an act of repentance.

3. Listening - I ask the Lord to speak to me about whatever He wants and just listen. The Spirit speaks almost exclusively through our thoughts as we give Him control (John 14:26). We have to be still and silent enough to hear His voice. As you hear Him, write down what He says. Interact with Him. Make sure you hold these thoughts up against the listening rubric (see other side).

4. Prayer needs - what do you need to pray for? Write down your prayer requests so you can go back and see how God answered then (Philippians 4:7-7).

5. Daily assignments - I always finish asking the Spirit to tell me if there is anything specific He wants me to do that day (Psalm 143:10). Sometimes I feel prompted to do very specific things like talk to a person or give a large tip at lunch. Sometimes it is a more general word like "slow down" or "work on joy today." The key is immediate and complete obedience. I then check the next day to see if I did what I thought I heard the Spirit ask me to do and what the results were. Again, hold this up against the rubric to ensure it is not just your thoughts leading you.

You don't have to do all 5 every day. I don't. I always include listening and daily assignments and almost always include gratitude, but the time is up to the Spirit to control.

Journaling doesn’t have to be complicated, but it can be life changing. I pray the discipline helps you learn to listen to and obey the Spirit’s leadership in the twists and turns of your life.