Does God Hear Written Prayers?
Benefits to journalling your quiet time.
Last night, I took out my journals from 2019. That was the year I got saved. I journalled a lot that year, and it was neat to see my progress with certain issues. For example, I had a couple of friends I was no longer sure about. At first, I wrote about those situations briefly but then in more detail. It was neat to see my progress in this area and how God led me to end those friendships. As someone who lacked confidence over the years, it was equally exciting to HEAR the confidence in my writing. I knew what I had to do.
Did I make mistakes in those friendships? Yes. I wrote about those, too. That’s the beauty of written prayers and that’s what my journal was because I addressed each entry to the Lord. The beauty of written prayers is that you can bare your soul to God in a concrete way. Not only that, but you also have a written testimony of how He helped you.
Another benefit is that there are fewer potential distractions. When you have a pen and a journal, it’s somehow easier to stay focused on your praying. For me, anyway, I’m less likely to want to do other things, when I’m journalling my prayers. This is especially so when I journal before bed.
Don’t get me wrong, there is value in spoken prayers. You can bare your soul before God verbally, too. The thing with verbal prayers is you don’t always remember what you prayed. That isn’t a bad thing. We don’t always have to know. The main thing is, God hear us and remembers even when we forget.
Psalm 6:9 (NKJV) says:
“The Lord has heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer.”
It’s comforting to know God hears us. It’s also great to have a written record of what He’s done in our lives. We can’t go wrong whatever method of prayer we use. The main thing is that we pray.
As I poured over my journal last night, the desire to regularly write my prayers was resurrected. I still write my prayers, but not as much as I did in 2019. I try to pray daily, but reading those prayers made me miss the special and unique time with God that I had that year.
If you’re in doubt as to whether God hears written prayers, consider this: I wrote a lot about my desire for a husband. And writing about that desire, I often followed that with “I know he’s not in Nova Scotia,” which is where I lived at the time.
In 2020, I met Curtis, who was in Ontario. There’s no doubt God put us together. What I didn’t know when I met him was the same year I journalled my heart's desire for a husband, Curtis was prompted to change his prayer from, “Lord, will you send me a wife?” to “Lord, thank you for sending me a wife.” When I realized we were praying for each other the same year, I got teary.
In my opinion, that’s proof that God hears our prayers no matter what form they take. They might be written, verbal, spoken as a whisper, or even unspoken. A lady at church described how God answered a specific desire of her heart that she never prayed!
The main thing is that we pray, regardless of the form it takes. God wants a relationship with us. He wants us to talk to Him and share our hearts with Him. I personally did that best through journalling.
I hope this article gives you food for thought. If you’re already an avid journaller, perhaps you’ll consider turning your journals into a sacred record of your time with God. If you’ve never journalled, perhaps you’re encouraged to try it. If you already journal your quiet times with God, what has your experience been? Feel free to share in the comments.
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