Day 31 - Prayer Journaling

I've been keeping a spiritual journal for fifty-five years. I have read and responded to over 3000 spiritual journals that pastors and Christian leaders have sent me, as part of seminary classes, retreats, and conferences I have taught. Here are my thoughts on keeping a spiritual journal.

A spiritual journal is a record of the voice and activity of God, to you. When God speaks to you, write it down. To do that is to keep a prayer journal. 

People write differently. Some include lots of detail, such as the place where they are praying, prayer concerns, and biblical exegesis. But the core of the journal is: God's words, spoken to you. When I read the journals of others, that's what I am looking for. What is God saying to you? What is God doing with you?

When your mind wanders, I suggest writing where it wanders to. The mind does not wander arbitrarily, but always to something like a burden. The wandering mind is a barometer of your spiritual condition. Then, following 1 Peter 5:7, "cast your burdens on God, for he cares for you." 

I find it helpful to get the burdens on paper. To see them on paper makes it feel like they are not inside me any longer. Now, it's at a distance from me. De-burdening is an important part of entering into God's presence more fully. We have a greater focus on God because we are not so distracted by our burdens.

If keeping a spiritual journal is writing down what God says to me, how can I know it's really the voice of God? I have found that one better hears God's voice when they:

1) Saturate themselves with Scripture.
2) Spend MUCH time alone in God's presence.
3) Hang around people who do 1 and 2. 

There are some good books about this, such as Dallas Willard's Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God.

Because the spiritual journal is a record of God's voice to you, it is fruitful to occasionally re-read and re-meditate on your journal. A number of the things God tells you will become thematic in your life. It is important to remember them.

 

"Remembering" is huge in a person's spiritual life. When we have a written record of God's words for us, it can be easier to recall them as we re-ponder them anew. The maxim here is: "I will not forget God's words to me."

A spiritual journal, because it is a record of God's voice to you, is about you. Not others. Yes, I sometimes write about others in my journal. For example, I pray for others. Or, If I'm upset with someone, I use letters such as 'X' to refer to those persons. I don't want my journal to be found or read by someone with whom I'm angry with. When I write down such things before God I'm primarily asking God to help, not 'X,' but me, and with anger inside me.

What can you expect God to say to you? My experience tells me that God will say things like: his love for you, things he wants to heal inside you, things you need to repent of in your life, that he forgives you, things about his essence (the glory of who he is), giving you deeper insights on Scripture, giving direction, and so on. And, God impart things to you. When this happens to me I write down things like grace, mercy, peace, joy, love, hope, and power.

I don't believe journaling is for everybody. But remembering is. So is entering deeply into God's presence and hearing his voice.

***

For more on prayer and hearing God, see my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. 

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Questions and Answers on Prayer

In my book Praying I include a Q&A section at the end of the book.

I give my answers to the following issues. 

- I’m a Parent and Have Little Time to Get Alone with God.

- God Seems Absent from Me.

- How Do I Know if God Has Answered My Prayer?

- How Can I Pray When I Have Doubts?

- Why Isn’t Everyone Healed When I Pray?

- What Does It Mean to Ask for Anything in Jesus’ Name?

- What Do I Do When I Hear from God?

- What If I Don’t Feel Like Praying?

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Day 30 - A Prayer Movement

 

Dear Church,

I want you to launch a prayer movement that will influence many. 

I began this book by issuing a call to prayer, for a move of God in our churches. You do know, don’t you, that every awakening, every revival, began with, and was fueled by, praying people. Here’s one example.

I am especially moved by the story of a man who called his business colleagues to pray. It was 1857, in Boston. A businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier was led by God to host weekly noon prayer meetings for workers in Boston’s business district. A local church gave Lanphier permission to use their facility. The format was simple. No preaching, just praying, worship, and prayer requests.

The first gathering was on September 23, 1857. Six people showed up. Next week, there were twenty. The week after, almost forty. By the end of October there were one hundred. Word of these meetings spread. Another church was needed to host what came to be known as the Fulton Street Prayer Meetings.

On March 28, 1858, 6100 people gathered, at various locations in Boston, to pray and worship. At one place there was 600, at another 1200. This was a move of God that spread to many cities across our land.

Could this happen again? I believe it not only can, but it must. We need a mighty, earth-shattering, paradigm-shifting move of God in our churches. It is time to be part of something great, for the cause of Christ. This means me. This means you.

J. P. Moreland, in his book on miracles, wrote this.

“I would rather have the Lord take me home than risk failing to finish well,

hurting those who look up to me, or losing my integrity.”

(Moreland, A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles, p. 23)

Upon reading this, I reached for a 3X5 card, and wrote down the quote. I placed it in my pocket. I carried it with me for a few weeks, reading it often.

This quote became a prayer. I prayed the words to God, asking him to protect and guide me so I might finish my life well.

I think of what Jesus said, in Luke 12, about watchfulness and readiness.

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning…

It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.

t will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready,

even if he comes in the middle of the night…

You also must be ready, 

because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” 

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying

Day 29 - When It’s Hard to Pray

 

Dear Church,

Sometimes it is hard to pray. 

In 1985 Linda was pregnant, expecting twins. We were thrilled about this! I remember working together to prepare a room for them. I subscribed to a magazine called “Twins.” I celebrated this awaited event!

Soon, two baby boys would be in our life. Until…

I remember the routine doctor visit. The stethoscope. The doppler. The doctor. The look on his face. He told us to go to Sparrow Hospital, immediately.

One of our little boys was dead. The other was on the edge of life and death. An emergency C-section brought them both into the bright, antiseptic room. I will never forget the weight of my son David, as I held him. The other, Joshua, was being attended to.

On that day Linda and I entered the valley of the shadow of death. And it was hard to pray. In my praying time the day before, I read these words.

Those who sow with tears
    will reap with songs of joy.
⁶ Those who go out weeping,
    carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
    carrying sheaves with them.

Psalm 126:5-6

Sometimes, when I pray, my mind wanders. After the loss of David, and the fight for Joshua’s life, “wanders” was not the word to describe my experience. In our grieving it felt like being in a black hole that devours whatever light there is.

Through it all, we are certain God understood our struggle. I remember us standing, in the hospital, looking through the window and seeing little Joshua, when one of us said, “This is hard. But imagine how hard it would be if we did not have God.”

Prayers offered in the dark valley feel extraordinary compared to praying in the ordinary. During such times, do not feel less than loved and less understood by God.

In times when you are weak, and it is hard to find words, remember that Jesus himself was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Love,

PJ

P.S Our Joshua made it, and today lives a flourishing life.

 

REMEMBER

Express your grief to God.

Remember that Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:3)

Remember that we do not have, in Jesus, a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. (Hebrews 4:15)

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 28 - Praying and Giving Thanks

 

 

Dear Church,

Let thanksgiving fill your hearts as you pray.

I make lists of things I am thankful for. I write these in my spiritual journal. I write them on 3X5 cards, and carry them with me. I keep them before me, re-reading and re-pondering them throughout the day. The result is, I often experience a heart that overflows with gratitude towards God. This is a good spiritual place for me to be. It also affects my times of praying.

The apostle Paul says our prayers should be accompanied “with thanksgiving.” In Philippians 4:6 we read,

Do not be anxious about anything,

but in every situation,

by prayer and petition,

 with thanksgiving,

present your requests to God.

New Testament scholar Ben Witherington has written that Paul believes there is much to be said for praying in the right spirit or frame of mind. This is significant for the Roman Philippians, since pagan prayers did not include thanksgiving. Roman prayers were often fearful, bargaining prayers, not based on a relationship with some god.

Witherington adds: “Prayer with the attitude of thanksgiving is a stress-buster.” John Wesley said that thanksgiving is the surest evidence of a soul free from anxiety.

Paul's antidote for worry and anxiety is praying, with thanksgiving.

Love,

PJ

(I recognize that there are clinical, neurophysical conditions that cause anxiety and fear. The antidote for such conditions may be medications. But even when medications stabilize a person's emotions, issues of trust may remain. Medication will not fully help a person when the only chair they have keeps breaking, but it may help them access the spiritual help they need.

If you have severe anxiety I recommend two things:

1) Praying, and having people pray for you. 
2) Seeing a physician who is skilled in treating you physically. 

Combine spiritual intervention with medical intervention.)

 

JOURNAL

Write a list, in your journal, of things you are thankful for.

Look at it often.

Add to it as it happens.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 27 - Pray for Your Enemies

 

Dear Church,

Pray for your enemies.

A pastor is a shepherd, of a flock of people. What a privilege this is! I thank God, often, for calling Linda and me to be pastors.

But sometimes, one of the sheep bites. As a pastor, I have taken my share of abuse. I’ve been doing this since 1971, and I’ve got bite marks all over by soul. Here’s one story of a man who chomped on me.

I was in my fourth year at a church in the Chicago area. I was teaching a series, on Sunday evenings, on the book of Revelation. At one point we were looking at the Second Coming of Christ. When will this happen?

I was using Jack Hayford’s Spirit-Filled Life Bible. Jack did the footnotes. In a footnote relevant to the question, Jack presented nine possible theological views of when the second Coming might happen. I showed these to the class. I remember telling them that we need to be humble about this subject, because good Christians had differing views.

Little did I know that, as I talked about the nine possibilities, a man in the class was getting angrier and angrier. He believed there was only one view of the Second Coming, and it was his.

I have not forgotten what happened as the class ended. He was a big man, over six feet tall. He was much older than I. He approached me, bent down to my eye level. The veins in his neck were bulging. His face was red. He yelled. I was, he said, wrong, a heretic, and a false teacher. At a few points I thought he was going to hit me.

I was shaken.

As I drove home with Linda, I found myself hating him. I wanted to get even with him. Vengeance was mine, sayeth myself.

I could not pray without hurting him, somehow, at least in my mind.

He was an enemy that threatened me. He was a persecutor, of me. I could not, I chose not to, pray for him. And, making things harder, I was a lover of Jesus. I knew about what Jesus said in Luke 6:28 - Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. So God, how can I do this thing that you command me to do?

“Pray for your enemies,” my Lord Jesus says. Well, that’s easy for him to say, because he is Jesus. Not really, right? Jesus did it in the moment when hanging on that cross, as hatred assaulted him. In his darkest time, he prayed, “Forgive these people, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

How can I do Mark 11:25?

And when you stand praying,

 if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them,

so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Or Mark 5:44?

But I tell you, love your enemies

and pray for those who persecute you,

And what does Psalm 23 mean when it says,  

 

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows."

 While engaging with the 23^rd Psalm, one of my seminary students received a God-insight I had never thought of before. God told him that, not only is the "prepared table" visible to one's enemies, but so is being anointed with oil and the overflowing cup. My cup, said my student, overflows onto my enemies!

 That sounded like a God-thought to me. I related it to my cry for a greater love, in me. Anyone, it says in the Bible, can love people who love them back. That’s easy. The real test is to love those who assault and endanger me.

Dear Beloved of God, there is a praying life that is deeper and wider and higher and longer, which includes praying for your enemies. I invite you to pray this with me: "God, let your love so shape and fill my heart that it overflows even to my enemies."

Pray for release. Pray for the freedom to love others as Christ loves them.

 Pray to receive this love for your own self.

 

Love…,

 

PJ

 

ASSIGNMENT

Pray for a love that, like the love of God, is higher, wider, deeper, and longer 

than any earthly love you have experienced. 

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 26 - Preconditions for Effective Praying

 

Dear Saints, 

Righteousness is a precondition for effective praying. 

Imagine this (which is not an example from my family).  You have an adoscent child who has chosen to reject your counsel. You see them making choices that are destructive. Recently, they caused an accident that damaged your car, and hurt another person. They still live in your home. You decide to set some boundaries. You are not to enable their bad behavior. 

 Your son is not in a right relationship with you. One day he petitions you, saying,"I want the car keys. I need to go do something." Do you comply? "Not," you respond, "until we have a talk and get on the same page." The petition of an unrighteous son is powerless and ineffective.

It is the same with prayer. James 5:16 tells us this:  

The prayer of a righteous person  Is powerful and effective.  

"Righteousness" means being in right relationship with God. A righteous person is on the same moral and spiritual page as God is. Conversely,   

 The prayer of an unrighteous person is powerless and ineffective.  

 “Effective.”  

 The prayers of a person who is in right relationship with God “effect” things. This is about causality. Their prayers do things.

Brothers and sisters, righteous and holy living is a precondition for effective, powerful praying. 

 Love, 

 PJ 

 FOCUS 

 Righteousness 

 Holiness 

 Purity 

 Walk in step with the Spirit

If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just 

and will purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Christianity, Culture, and Politics - A Select Bibliography

 

SOME RESOURCES THAT HAVE HELPED ME 

(These are resources I have read and studied, and have helped me better understand the relationship between religion, culture, and politics. Surely there are more. What books have helped you?)

This color highlight means: read these books first.

• Ryan T. Anderson, Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom
• Anderson, When Harry Became Sally (This excellent book is banned from Amazon.com.)
• Francis Beckwith, Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith (I read this book last summer and learned much from it. Beckwith’s chapter on human dignity is brilliant. [Christian Smith’s chapter on human dignity in What Is a Person? Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up is stunning.] Beckwith is Prof of Jurisprudence and Philosophy at Baylor U.)
• Beckwith, Politics for Christians: Statescraft as Soulcraft
• James Beilby and Paul Eddy, Understanding Transgender identities; Four Views.
• Brian Benestad, Five Views on the Church and Politics 
• Greg Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church
• Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning, The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars
• Alisa Childers, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity 
• Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel (In a discussion with Greg Boyd he strongly recommended this book of readings to me.)
• Amy Chua, Political tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations. Still reading - excellent!
• Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals (What should Christians do when allegiances to the state clash with personal faith?)
• Charles Colson, God and Government: An Insider's View on the Boundaries Between Faith and Politics
• James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree 
• John Corvino and Ryan T. Anderson, Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination
• John Corvino and Ryan T. Anderson, Debating Same-Sex Marriage
• Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed. 
• Ross Douthat, The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success.
• Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation
• Dreher, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents
• Robert P. George, Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism (George, Prof of Law at Yale U., and a follower of Jesus, is a brilliant scholar who teaches us, among other things, how to civilly discourse about hard issues.)
• Wayne Grudem, Politics – According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture
• Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink From Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People 
• Johnathan Haidt and Greg Lukionoff, The Coddling of the American Mind (The best book I read in 2019. Haidt and Lukionoff help us understand, e.g., microaggressions and hatred and the American culture of "safetyism.")
• Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion. Everyone should read this before opening their mouth about politics.
• Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
• Andrew Hartman, A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars (See this reviewed here - https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/that-new-time-religion/ ) 
• James Hoffmeier, et. al., Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scripture
• Greg Johnson, Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church's Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality. Well-written, by a same-sex attracted follower of Jesus, who holds to the view that marriage is between a man and a woman.
• Robert Joustra and Alissa Wilkinson, How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World
• Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail" 
• Al Mohler, The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church
• Harold Netland, Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God: The Evidential Force of Divine Encounters
• H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (Arguably, this is THE classic text which nicely forms intelligent discussion. How is Christ relevant to the world in which we live now?)
• Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism
• Pellegrino, Schulman, and Merrill, Human Dignity and Bioethics. Arguably the book to read on: 1) What is human dignity?; 2) Is there such a thing as human dignity?; and 3) If there is, does it make a difference? Collected essays by a great variety of scholars.
• Ronald J. Pestritto, America Transformed: The Rise and Legacy of American Progressivism 
• Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody (An excellent book on the influence of postmodern thinking on culture.)
• John Piippo, Deconstructing Progressive Christianity
• Postman, Neil, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. This book is prophetic. I've read it twice.
• Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
• Robert Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
• Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
• Ronald Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity (In evangelical Christianity, this is one of the classics. Read the four gospels as background, making note of all Jesus says about our relationship to Money. See also Ben Witherington, Jesus and Money.)
• Snodgrass, Klyne, Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity
• Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? (If this book doesn’t break your heart and burden you for the poor, we’re going to have to give you an EKG.)
• Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. This is the book where Smith, famously, introduces the worldview of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
• Smith, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults
• Smith, What Is a Person? Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up. Smith’s chapter on human dignity in is stunning.]
• Steven D. Smith, Pagans & Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac
• Ed Stetzer, Christians In the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is At Its Worst. Very helpful. 
• Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited. 
• Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (My book of the year in 2020.)
• Trueman, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution
• Zeynep Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest 
• Dan O. Via and Robert Gagnon, Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views
• Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and Why the Left Doesn’t Get It
• Jim Wallis, On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good
• David Wells, Above All Earthly Powers: Christ in a Postmodern World
• Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy.

• Mark Yarhouse, Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues In a Changing Culture
• George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk, One Faith No Longer: The Transformation of Christianity in Red and Blue America
• John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (This is essential reading for any who would engage in the discussion about how Jesus would have his followers respond to the political world we live in.)

And, of course, keep saturating yourself in Scripture.

Study the ethics of Jesus. Read the Gospels. Check this out - The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics. 

Do I agree with everything written in these books? 

Of course not. I don't agree with everything you say. 

And, I have said things that, upon reflection, have caused me to disagree with myself.

***

My Books

 Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Encounters with the Holy Spirit (co-edited with Janice Trigg)

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity

31 Letters to the Church on Discipleship

31 Letters to the Church on Praying

The Great Invasion: Thirty-One Days of Christmas 

Day 25 - Purging Prayers

 

 Dear Church,

As you pray, God will purge you of unrighteous anger.

One result of an ongoing praying life is that God removes unrighteous anger from my heart. God takes the chip off my shoulder. He softens the edge. He forms his heart of compassion, in me, for my enemies.

Remember the prayer of Jesus, when on the cross? “Father, forgive these people who are torturing me, for they have no idea of what they are doing.”

In praying, God frees me from the prison cell of hatred, and releases me to love in ways I have never done before. For me this is not a theory, but an existential reality. My wife Linda has seen the results. Because I have a praying life, I am a better husband, father, friend, and pastor. As Christ is more deeply formed in me, I get changed.

Most of this happens as I am praying. 

In praying, I am clay on a potter's wheel. I am not the agent of my own transformation, God is. Many times, I can feel Him shaping me.

This is praying as an act of resistance to the common, unholy structures of the world, which demand conformation to their will. To pray is to protest against the hate-filled standards of our culture. In praying we are transformed from reactionaries to revolutionaries.  

Henri Nouwen writes: "Entering the special solitude of prayer is a protest against a world of manipulation, competition, rivalry, suspicion, defensiveness, anger, hostility, mutual aggression, destruction, and war. It is a witness to the all-embracing, all-healing power of God's love." (Nouwen, The Road to Peace: Writings on Peace and Justice, 22-23)

 As praying becomes your modus operandi, God will save you from yourself.

Love,

PJ

 

UNDERSTAND

Anger is the emotion we feel,

when one of our expectations has not been met.

Are your expectations godly?

In your anger, do not sin.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.