How to establish a prayer journal routine: Part 1

The war is real .

“… pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

* Prayer journaling is an act of faith, therefore we are led by the Spirit of God hovering above every situation, waiting for our prayer commands to move into action on our behalve.

* Prayer must be practiced with consistency, patience, and faith, therefore we need to establish a prayer routine.We give something of ourselves to God and allow Him to align our prayers with His perfect will for our lives.

* It can be quite a challenge to establish effective and quality communication with God, especially when we are trying to keep up with our busy schedules and lifestyles.

My former morning routine

To be honest, I had a very inconsistent routine. Sometimes I got up with just enough time for a cup of coffee and a 10-minute communication with God. However, I did experience great breakthroughs because I refused to quit and to be silenced, and because of combining my prayers with fasting.

My old morning prayer routine was :

- Hasty
- Boring
- Inconsistent 
- Without strategy
- Lacking creativity
- An ordinary routine
- An obligation
- Not filled with enough of God's word.
- not persistent
- not strategic
- non-supported 
- randomly 

I tried to fit in my quiet time during the morning, just praying and if I had enough time, read scripture. I even tried journaling and a prayer habit tracker, but I still felt that as if it lacked something. First, I started to clean out my prayer routine.

Prayer Closet transformation

1.Evaluate your current system or routine

Rate yourself!

Start where you are and identify and write down the frustrations about your current routine and how you would like it to become better. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be honest and to reveal to you the areas where change is needed. Even some strategies can become outdated and in need of an upgrade. Remember,to achieve great outcomes, you need a strategy that can break through the battle lines. I even asked God to give me the correct schedule for praying.

2.Check out your current prayer support

With prayer support, I refer to books about prayer, journals, Bible studies, habit trackers, or any other resources you previously used when praying. We should bear in mind that prayer is a ministry and that God can add tools to make our prayers more effective to shatter the evil works of the devil. Prayer support can even refer to individuals with whom you are praying. Not everyone we pray with has honest intentions. I used to ask God to eliminate dishonest people from my prayer circle and God raised my husband and children in their place. It’s amazing and exciting how God speaks to us as a family.

3.Identify and clear out old habits

This is the part where I started when I realized that because of my bad habits I had a lukewarm relationship with God. This is the area where I needed to be honest with myself and confess and break all those habits that were holding me from a victorious life. It is best to bring them in prayer before God, renounce it and break with it.

4.Replace

Once the old habits are cleaned out, they need to be replaced with new and better systems. I experienced that the best way to succeed in this is by replacing it with counter scriptures declarations.

5.Present your proposal in prayer unto God

When the Jewish nation was threatened by extinction, Esther petitioned unto God and she received mercy and favor. Our adversary will always try to eliminate our best weapon: Prayer. Therefore, we need to find a way to effective and strategic prayer. Praying about our prayer evaluation to seek the will of God, is the anti-climax during this journey.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7

“Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Proverbs 3:6

The Holy Spirit is constantly evaluating our prayerlife and showing us ways to prayer strategically.This is something that we should be aware of, because Jesus himself taught the disciples about prayer.

It is always worthwhile and effective to begin something your desire with fasting.Wait upon the Lord.

Blessed journaling.