How to start a prayer journal

A prayer journal is a place to write your prayers and what God is teaching you. It slows your thoughts down, helps you listen, and leaves a record of God’s faithfulness you can read later. You do not need to be a writer. A few honest lines are enough.

“Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”

Habakkuk 2:2, KJV

What to write in a prayer journal

• What you are thankful for today.
• The verse or passage you read, in your own words.
• What you sense God is saying to you.
• What you are asking Him for, and for whom.
• Answers to prayer, with the date.

The SOAP method

If a blank page stops you, try SOAP, a simple way to journal through Scripture:

• S, Scripture: write out one verse from today’s reading.
• O, Observation: what does it say? Who is speaking, and to whom?
• A, Application: what does it mean for your life today?
• P, Prayer: write a short prayer from it.

Make it a daily habit

Journal at the same time as you pray, and keep it short. End your prayer time by writing your thanks. Once a month, read back over what you wrote. You will see prayers God has answered and ways you have grown.

Keep it private

A journal is between you and God. That is why, in the free Prayer War Room app, your journal is yours alone, unless you choose to share an entry with a group. There are no ads, no tracking, and nothing is sold.

How are you today?

Each day the app asks how you are, from Heavy to Joyful, and gives you a verse for that kind of day. Your journal shows your week at a glance, and how the days you prayed compare with the rest. Only you see it.

The thanks you write at the end of your prayer time go straight into your journal, dated today.