Prayer Journaling Part II

Begin with prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit, your Counselor, to open your heart and guide you to the truth.
Write what's on your heart. Start talking to God and share your joys, victories, desires, frustrations, anger, fears, hurts and heartaches with Him. Record scriptural and spiritual insights, revelations, strengths, weaknesses, your love and praise, goals, prayers, dreams, memories, and special events. See below for journaling prompts.
Don't worry about mistakes. Don't be concerned about spelling, penmanship or content. Thinking too long about what you're going to write may hinder you.
Listen and record. Record what God impresses on your heart. His voice will always line up with His written Word.
Date every entry. To help you see the progress you've made, it's important to record the date of each journal entry.
Use a highlighting pen. Highlight scriptures and words God speaks to your heart, so you can easily locate them in your journal to re-read later. Sometimes God speaks repeatedly trying to get your attention to warn you or prepare you for the future.

Faith/February 21, 2011

Prayer Journaling/Part I

I kept a prayer journal for many years....I actually have a whole stack of journals, dating back to the nineties. I found that designating a specific journal just for my prayers was very cathartic. Whenever I had burdens on my heart, I could write them in my journal and spend time praying over them. Once I had written them down, I could leave them on the pages and move on. I would then go back and record what I felt God was trying to tell me through my prayers about the burdens I had put before him. My journals were not filled with just burdens but also the hopes and dreams that I had put before God, praying that they were aligned with what He had for me and for my life. I often go back through my prayer journals and I am always amazed at how God answered specific prayers and how certain situations played out. My journals have revealed so much about me and seasons I was going through and I can see personal and spiritual growth within the pages. The journal in the middle of the picture above has labels, "The Past", "The Present", "The Future". In the category, "The Past", I talked about things in my past that I needed to let go of or was working through. In the category, "The Present", I journaled about what was happening--good and bad in my life at the present...areas that needed prayer and guidance. "The Future", was filled with hopes and dreams about things I would accomplish in the future, things I wanted to do, plans. I put them all out there. You can start a prayer journal with any notebook or scrapbook. It does not have to be fancy, but it should be personal. It helps if you embellish it with your own unique style so that it becomes a sacred place for you to let go of emotional and spiritual weight. I like to doodle in my journal...

I will give you more tips next week about putting together a personalized prayer journal. In the meantime, think about the categories you would add to your prayer journal....and how you would embellish your journal...

Faith/February 14, 2011

"For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7)

I left my pastoral position at the Free Methodist Church on a Friday afternoon. That Sunday, car after car lined the streets in front of my house as people came to minister to me.

Things were bad at the church, I was asked to do things, and be a part of things with which I was not spiritually comfortable. I averted situation after situation with my peers and the rest of the pastoral staff. I was one of four pastors assigned to this particular church. It was truly a miserable existence day after day, yet I loved my flock. God surrounded me with people who loved me and people who believed in me. They saw my pain and the struggles I was living with as a witness and they came to my aid the first Sunday after I had left my position by showing up at my house for "church". We could barely fit everyone in the living room. The next Sunday it was the same thing again, and the following Sunday, again and again and that is how God built a little church.

One Sunday my flock presented me with a huge sign that read, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7), and that became my verse for a year as I grieved the loss of potential, the loss of a vision God had given me and the loss of a very large ministry I had built and had to leave behind when I left my position.

Soon we had saved enough money as a group to get a building. After 52 Sunday's, I stood before my congregation to break it to them that it would be my last Sunday. I needed time to heal myself of the years of spiritual and emotional abuse that I had experienced, the hatred, anger and violence these men had projected upon me during my tenure at the Free Methodist Church. My spiritual and emotional wounds were so deep that I no longer felt I was a good example to my congregation.

What happens in life when you come up against impossible situations? How do you handle them?

I have learned through the deepest valleys of my career that God is always the great refiner, performing the deepest root work through the fires of life, through the tough things, and each obstacle presents an opportunity to deepen our faith and grow in wisdom. In addition, I discovered that although I felt as though I needed to be strong for my flock, an example of God's faithfulness week after week, God sent each of those people to minister to ME! He opened their hearts and gave them an opportunity to help me through the grieving process in order for me to move on. While I was stuck in the past, God had a new assignment for me; a new journey and he put people in my life to help me make that transition.

If your situation seems hopeless, attempt to look at it from a new perspective. God used a church full of people to brighten my path and lighten my load. Things are not always as they appear. God is ever faithful and sometimes we do not get the big picture until years after a traumatic experience.

Some additional things I learned in the valley:

All of our capabilities belong to God.
When considering a life of faith, the longings of our heart and soul should be consecrated to God.
When your heart is right, God will open doors for you.
He longs to give us the desires of our heart.
God loves you so much that when you feel you are at the lowest point, He will send others to surround you with His love and tender care until you heal.
Employ your gifts to uplift others.
Last but certainly not least…walk by faith and not by sight. Although things my look bleak and you may be crying on the inside, He always has a plan.

Faith/ February 7, 2011

Spring is Coming

I planted a dozen baby pine trees around the property at my cottage last fall. We have had a rough winter with very cold temperatures and lots of snow, and as I look around the property, rather than seeing the full baby tree, I can see only tiny shoots here and there poking out from the banks and drifts of snow. I have hoped and wondered throughout this season whether they were going to make it through, and I wondered whether I would be able to have the joy of watching them shoot up like pine trees do in the spring.

This reminds me that sometimes during the winter of our lives we tend to live in survival mode. We do what we can to stay strong under the pressures of our heavy burdens. Sometimes our own sorrows inhibit us from healthy growth. The burdens of our heart and spirit pile upon us, blanketing us, and we wonder if we are strong enough to withstand the weight.

I have had seasons like this in my life, times that I call winter. Sometimes it feels like it goes on and on, and we grow weary. We long for the light, but we are not quite prepared for it to come just yet. Maybe you need to remain just a little longer in survival mode. Perhaps you are not emotionally or spiritually ready to come out of hibernation.

I know that if my tender baby trees can make it through their first winter, their roots will grow strong enough to withstand the many winters that lay ahead. I guess this is true for people too. If we grow our roots during good times–establishing our faith, our belief system, our “God confidence”– then we will be able to withstand some of the seasons of hardship that will inevitably touch us in our lifetime.

This is the one thing that is for certain: Spring is coming! It happens every year. I will look out my window one morning to find hundreds of yellow day lilies blooming. I will hear the sound of mama robin chatting away in the trees. Then as the sun grows closer to us, we experience the big thaw. The ice begins to melt, waters start to flow, and we see new buds on the trees. The plants in the garden begin to spring up from the ground as if they too are emerging from hibernation and are now strong enough to see the light of day. They built their roots during hibernation and are bigger, stronger, and more colorful each spring.

If you have been going through some difficult times and feel like the burdens on your heart and soul will never ease, remember that the coming of spring is always certain. This season of hibernation that you are going through will only last until you are spiritually and emotionally ready to move on. We grow during the winters of our lives, establishing our root system. During these times, we can choose to insulate ourselves in darkness or we can choose to poke our heads out above it to see the light.

After surviving a season of hibernation, young plants are starving. They spread out their

roots and absorb every nutrient that the ground in which they are planted has to offer. They are growing strong again, getting ready for new growth. I suppose it is that way for hurting people too. Once we survive hibernation, we are eager to grasp new life, a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing and a new way doing things. We embrace the light, spreading our wings, taking chances and absorbing all that our Creator has for us to learn and see and do. We are hungry. We have a new richness about us. We show buds of new growth in our actions and attitudes and flowering in our heart. The winter that had frozen our soul has now been touched by spring, by new life, and we are ready to embrace the light.

If you are in the winter of your life one thing is certain: Spring is coming! Your soul is preparing for it in the silence.