Keeping A Spiritual Journal

Note from the moderator: A while back our Bible Study group was discussing the benefits of keeping a personal “spiritual journal” in order to record some of the experiences and emotions that we have had while walking with the Lord. We were discussing how many of the Psalms and verses in the Bible were really, in a sense, the “spiritual journals” of many of the servants of God down through the ages. These servants of God recorded their “spiritual ups and downs”, trials and sufferings, as well as miraculous deliverances and victories, which encourage us and strengthen us today as we read them. They serve as examples to us teaching us to persevere with Christ and to not give up on God. When servants of God give us “insights” into their personal walks with Christ through their testimonies (both written and oral), they speak to us and encourage us to believe even more strongly in our own walks with Him as well. That is why we must share these experiences with each other. The Scriptures say that “faith comes by hearing” (Rom. 10:17). In other words, faith is built-up by hearing.

Over the past eight years, I have kept a personal spiritual journal of my prayers and experiences with God. These have helped me tremendously in times of discouragement, hopelessness, and fear. I have recorded my spiritual ups and downs, successes and failures, hopes and prayers, as well as my private revelations and psalms to God. When I find that I need strength and encouragement to go on, I read them from time to time. I have found that sometimes “looking back” at my own personal walk with God helps me to go forward and realize that God has delivered me many times in the past, and that He will continue to faithfully do so in the future. It helps me to remember that all I have to do is keep believing in Him and persevering and that my God will make it all work out for me according to good (Rom. 8:28). It is clear from the Bible that David sometimes did this as well. He drew upon his personal past record of deliverances by the Lord in order to face bigger giants ahead of him. He told King Saul that the same God that delivered him from the mouth of the lion and the paw of the bear would deliver him from that giant Goliath (I Sam. 17:34-37). The Bible says that “David encouraged himself in the Lord his God” when he was distressed and didn’t know what to do (I Sam. 30:6). In other words, David remembered his past walk with the Lord and God’s faithful dealings with him up until that current time, and this helped him by encouraging him to go on and to go forward in faith.

After studying this subject, and seeing how “keeping a spiritual journal” can help aid your spiritual life, one of the ladies in our Bible Study group, Sue Bosh, took what she had learned from the study and began applying it in her life. This is what she wrote as her first entry which she wanted to share with us at Sharing the Way:
10/27/06: Dear God – When it was said to write down our experiences, good and bad, as they happened, I had no idea what to expect. But, as always, I knew You would be in charge of things so I didn’t really think about this other than to think to myself, “What will I write about? How will I? ” … and all that other stuff. I shouldn’t have worried. You had something in mind, and I am grateful. Thank You, Father.

Today was an average Friday. My daughter had the day off from work and we had some time to ourselves. We decided to go to Hobby Lobby and just spend a bunch of time browsing.

As we walked up to the door of the store, there was a woman in a wheelchair rolling up at the same time. She was the kind of woman that sometimes gets ignored: she was elderly, her clothes were kind of dirty, she wore a stocking cap with big sunglasses perched on it, she was rough to look at, large, and she was struggling to open the door with the handicap button. I opened one side for her but her chair was too wide so another lady opened the other side. We all rolled into the store.

She told us that she was grateful for the help; that some people wouldn’t have done that and thanked us a lot.
After about 15-20 minutes of looking on some shelves just inside the door, my daughter and I started to go to the back of the store and there this lady was again. I said that it was funny to have been in there for that amount of time and had only gotten a few feet inside the door. I said that the store had all kinds of cute stuff for Thanksgiving and I showed the woman the little things I had picked up. She assured me that Thanksgiving was a Christian holiday .She also said that she wasn’t sure what she would have to eat on that day, but she was sure that God would provide her with what she needed. She said that He always did. I agreed and added how thankful I was that He provides as we need.

Thank you, Father for that!

We started sharing a conversation right there in the aisle of the store. We talked of God and Jesus. She told me of her struggles with her neighbors and that they disdain her talking about God and His Word. They told her that she was crazy. Dirty. And that her apartment was stinking because she preached the things of God!
I was stunned! She told me that she didn’t mind when they said those things, because she knew that they were controlled by Satan and his demons. Amazing lady!

Watch over her, Dear Lord.

She said that she was shopping for some incense to freshen up the air at her place and to help with the cigarette smells, etc. around the place where she lived. (There were a lot of younger people that were in “cult stuff” living in her building) And did I know where it was in the store? I asked a clerk and we went together to find it.

Her name is Cecilia. And she is 74 years old.

I helped her select a scent that wasn’t so strong and we continued our talk. All the while she kept thanking me for talking with her. (It really didn’t occur to me not to) She said that she had prayed for God to send her someone to talk with about Him and she thought it was His Providence that I was there….so do I.

Thank You, My Father.

She told me that she searched for “something” all her life and didn’t quite know what it was that she was looking for, but nothing filled her until God touched her heart!

I praise You, Abba Father for holding her heart.

She explained to me that before she came to know God she was visited by a pastor of some church and he noticed that she had a bunch of books about all kinds of religions lining her shelves. This pastor told her to give them to him and for her to concentrate on just the Bible because the other books she had wouldn’t do her any good, only confuse her. So she said okay, but wouldn’t they attract demons to him? And he told her that he could handle that. She told me that from that day on, she was God‘s. He opened her heart and she found peace. After 70-some years of searching, she finally found rest. Cecelia said that she “started hating what she once loved and started loving what she once hated”! A new woman!!

We talked for close to an hour and it was hard to part ways. She had things to do and so did I. We will look for each other when we go to that area again, and be glad when we meet.

My daughter said that she knew I had a Divine appointment…she was right.

Dear Lord, Thank You for arranging that assignment for me. Thank You, too, for using me for Your purpose. I love You more each day. What deep feelings I felt for You just talking with Cecilia. That You call us all right where we are! Please comfort her in the lonely times. Feed her body and spirit as You see fit and help her to be strong in You. I pray in the name of Jesus my Brother and Lord.

Amen