I would like to talk about “Prayer books” (a notebook with your prayers in it). It would be good if we all had a prayer book, one that we might carry in a pocket or purse so that we might write our prayers from time to time. This enables us to review them, to remind us to pray, and even to mark off prayers answered.
The question is often asked, “Why write prayers? Can’t one pray just as well by spoken or thought prayers?” An honest answer would have to be “yes”, but I believe that there is great gain in writing prayers and rereading them. To begin with it slows one down to a point of real concentration. Prayer is not something to be hurried, except for those flash prayers we interject throughout the day.
Prayer is communion that comes from an intimate relationship with God. It is talking, listening, waiting, loving, sharing, expecting.
A second reason for writing prayers is the fact that it provides an opportunity to refresh one’s memory and to see in writing the things for which we have prayed. It also helps us to realize which prayer requests have been fulfilled, which have been denied and those for which a better answer has been given.
This written record is personal. We should consider carefully before we share it with another. It is intimate. It is priceless. Much like in the movie, War Room, prayer of this nature is done in secret.
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matthew 6:6)
Hopefully, along the way we will have learned how to listen to God who has a complete plan for our lives if we will only let Him bring it to fulfillment.