For the last several years, I’ve started a new prayer journal on New Years Day. There’s something about a blank notebook that stirs my hope for the coming days, weeks, and months ahead. Blank pages are pregnant with possibility. My prayer journal is where I record new insights from my Bible reading, write prayer requests from friends and loved ones, and journal what’s going on in my life. A few months ago, I was cleaning my office and pulled my prayer journals off the shelf and flipped through the pages. As I read the entries, I sat down on my office floor and cried. I wasn’t crying over the content, although some of it was painful. Rather, I was moved to tears by the faithfulness of God.
These journals chronicle fourteen years of marriage, a life-threatening medical crisis, the sale of one home and the purchase of another, earning a B.S. and M.A. degree, the death of loved ones, job transitions, making new friends and saying good-bye to old ones, the ups and downs of ministry, rejoicing over loved ones salvations and baptisms, crushing personal disappointments, celebrations from attained goals, and everything in between.
These prayer journals are a record of my life. As I looked through the pages I was reminded of the faithfulness of God. As Asaph wrote in Psalm 77:11-12, “I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”
The day I sat on my office floor and reread these journals I recalled all the ways God has acted on my behalf. It stirred my faith and increased my hope for the future.
Although the content in my prayer journals vary in topic and urgency, there is one common theme that threads the pages of each of these books together; the faithfulness of God. He has met me on every page and heard every request. He has brought me through circumstances I feared would destroy me and carried me out safely on the other side. He has led me, taught me, convicted me, encouraged me, forgiven me, and loved me every day of my journey.
Tomorrow I will wake up to a New Year and a blank page. So will you. What if 2016 is the year that we lean in closer to God than ever before? What if we seek Him daily through the Scriptures? What if we pray like our lives depend on it? After all, they do.
I love a brand new journal that represents exciting possibilities and fantastic outcomes. But I’ve lived long enough to know that not everything I write in this journal in the coming year will be exciting or fantastic. Some of it may be hard, too much even. That’s OK, because my previous years journals have taught me this:
“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23
I have no idea what 2016 will bring. But I know He is faithful. And that’s enough to make me want to embrace the coming year with great anticipation knowing my times are in His hands. (Psalms 31:5) Will you join me?
Happy New Year!
