Communication is not a one-way street. For a couple to truly communicate, they need to have a conversation — not just a monologue. Both must be engaged in listening and talking. The same is true in your relationship with God.
God wants to speak to you, but He also wants you to pour out your heart to Him. By now, you are reading God’s Word, identifying key passages, studying them and meditating on how they apply to your life. God is speaking, and you are learning to listen to His voice. These next two steps will help you get the most out of what God is speaking into your life.
Engage with God in prayer.
After you hear from God through His Word and you study it and meditate on how it applies to your life, then pray about that topic. Simply praying the Scripture back to God in your own words can be very powerful. Ask God to make the truth real in your life. If there is sin to confess, then confess it to Him quickly and receive His promised forgiveness, (1 John 1.9 ESV). Now you and Jesus are engaged in a conversation that is meaningful and transforming.
Note what God says and what you pray in a journal.
It is important to write down what God says for several reasons:
- It helps you remember what God has spoken in your life. If God convicts you to take some action, writing it down helps you remember to be obedient to do it. If God gives you a great promise or words of encouragement, writing it down helps you remember what He said.
- Writing down your conversations with God encourages you over the years. When you can look back at dark seasons in your life and see how God spoke, it encourages you that He is faithful and will see you through your current challenges.
- Writing down your conversations with God helps you pass on great promises and experiences to your children and others. over the years, great men and women of faith have participated in spiritual journaling as a daily discipline for knowing God better.
Here are some practical tips as you begin to journal:
- Date the page at the top so you will remember when God spoke to you.
- Write down the key passage and any insights God gives you.
- Record how the passage applies to your life. You may even want to personalize it, re-writing it with your name in it as if Jesus was speaking this directly to you.
- Write down your personal prayer. Write as if you are writing a letter to Jesus.
- Summarize what God spoke to you in a short title and write that at the top of the page.
I encourage you to keep these things physically or electronically so you can refer to them later. Another way you can “note what God has said” is to make a mental note by memorizing key passages that stand out to you. Psalm 119.11 NLT says, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
Deuteronomy 11.18 ESV says, “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul.” As you read, study, meditate and memorize God’s Word, you are hiding it in your heart and soul.
This blog features an excerpt from our book, Walk With God.
