The Journaling Coach

Archive for the ‘Journaling Retreat’ Category

It’s time to be inspired! A personal retreat will allow you to take a closer look at what God is doing in your life. Tracing His footsteps will help you to follow the path that He has for you. What better way to get inspired than by God Himself! He will lead you with His eye upon you!

I [the Lord] will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Ps 32:8 AMP

Schedule a half day retreat, just between you and God to quiet yourself and observe His movements in your life. You owe this to yourself and to your relationship with God. Scripture has much to say about reflection being an important part of our walk with God.

But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor. Gal 6:4 AMP

Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]…2 Cor 13:5 AMP

Let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord! Lam 3:40 AMP

We are not to focus on the past, but at times it is important to take a good look to see what God is doing and where He is leading you.

If you do not have the luxury of privacy in your own home without interruption for at least 2-3 hours, plan on going to a place where there will be no one will disturb you. Bring all of your journals from the past year with you.

You will need:

• Yellow Highlighter – Use this to highlight anything that the Lord spoke to you
• Pink or blue Highlighter (any two colors will do) -  to highlight prayer requests and God’s answers
• A new journal
• Your Bible
• Pen

Read through your journals from the previous year. This is so beneficial that I suggest you do this monthly and quarterly as well, to see the big picture of your life and enable you to see:

• How much you have grown
• If you are following through with God’s directives
• God answers to your prayers
• Unanswered prayers
• The direction God is leading you in
• How God is working in your life
• And how clearly you are hearing His voice

Begin with prayer, praise and worship. Lighting a candle seems to set a reflective mood for me. Make sure your heart is right before Him.

Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind. (Ps 26:2 AMP)

If the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, ask for forgiveness and commit to turn from that sin.

Ask God to direct you and begin reading through your journals, highlighting everything that God spoke to your heart. This could be a word from the Holy Spirit, a scripture, an idea or possibly a word that God spoke to you through someone else, a movie, or even a song.

Title the first page of your New Journal with –“God’s Movements in 2009”.

Now record:

• Any words God spoke to you, His directives, encouragement or prophesies
• Your spiritual growth and areas you still need to work on
• Answered prayers and prayers you are still waiting on
• Dreams and visions and specific prayer directives that God gave you in 2008

This will clarify God’s activity in your life so that you can walk in the pathway that He has mapped out for you.

Now write out an application of how you need to change or modify your life? What steps do you need to take? Write out a plan.

Spend some time reading a few scriptures, waiting on God and journaling for your future. End the day with worship and prayer.

Even if you have never journaled you can start today and at the end of next month you too can have a personal Journaling Retreat!