Prayer Journal Prompts: 70 Ideas to Grow Your Faith

Most prayer starts strong and then wanders. You sit down, say thank you for a few things, ask for help with the obvious stuff, and run out of road. Ten minutes later you are not sure whether you prayed or just thought about your day with your eyes closed.

A prayer journal fixes the wandering. Writing slows you down enough to mean what you say, and it leaves a record you can look back on. Six months from now you will read an entry about something you were terrified of and realize you cannot even remember why. That is worth keeping.

Below are 70 original prayer journal prompts, sorted into the parts of prayer that people usually skip. Take one a day. You do not need all of them, and you do not need to be eloquent. God is not grading your grammar.

What a prayer journal is (and why prompts help)

A prayer journal is a notebook, an app, or a document where you write your prayers instead of only thinking them. Some people write full letters to God. Others jot a line of praise, a confession, and a short list of people they are holding up. Both count.

Prompts help for one reason: a blank page is intimidating, and the same three requests come up every time without one. A good prayer prompt points you somewhere you would not have gone on your own. It nudges you toward praise when you only feel like complaining, toward confession when you would rather skip it, toward honesty when you are tempted to perform.

If you are new to journaling in general, the mechanics carry over from any kind of writing practice. Our guide on how to journal covers the basics of building the habit, and the benefits of journaling hold whether you are praying or just processing your week.

How to use these prayer journal prompts

You do not need a system, but two old ones make the page easier to fill.

ACTS is the simplest. It gives prayer four moves in order: Adoration (praise God for who He is), Confession (name where you have fallen short), Thanksgiving (thank Him for what He has done), and Supplication (ask for what you and others need). Work down the four in one sitting, one short paragraph each, and you have prayed a full prayer without staring at nothing.

The Examen is a slower, reflective practice. You walk back through your day and notice where you felt close to God and where you felt far, where you gave love and where you withheld it. It is less about asking and more about paying attention to what already happened. Several of the listening prompts below lean this way.

• Pick one prompt, not ten. Depth beats coverage. One honest paragraph is a real prayer.
• Write badly on purpose. This is not a performance. Cross things out. Trail off. Start again.
• Date every entry. The dates are what make a prayer journal worth rereading. Answered prayers only become obvious in hindsight.
• Do not skip the hard categories. Confession and lament are where most people quit, and they are where the journal does the most work.

Now the prompts.

Adoration and praise

1. Write about one thing God did this week that you did not make happen yourself.
2. Name an attribute of God that has felt real to you lately, and describe the moment you noticed it.
3. Describe a place in nature that makes you want to say thank you before you can explain why.
4. What do you love about God that has nothing to do with what He gives you?
5. Write a short paragraph of praise using only words a child would understand.
6. Recall a moment this month when you felt small in a good way. What made you feel it?
7. Which of God's promises are you leaning on right now? Put it in your own words.
8. Describe God the way you would describe Him to someone who has never heard His name.
9. What is one thing about God's character you find hard to believe but want to?
10. Write down a line from a song or hymn that has been carrying you, and why it holds.

Confession

11. Where did you fall short today, and what were you protecting when you did it?
12. Name a habit you keep asking forgiveness for. What keeps pulling you back?
13. Write honestly about a person you have been unkind to, in thought or in word.
14. What have you been too proud to admit you got wrong?
15. Where are you trusting your own plan more than you are trusting God?
16. Confess something you have been rationalizing. Say it plainly, without softening it.
17. What resentment are you holding that you have not been willing to hand over?
18. Where did you choose comfort over the thing you knew was right?
19. Write about a way you have used busyness to keep a distance from God.
20. What sin feels too small to mention? Mention it anyway.

Thanksgiving

21. List five ordinary things from today you would genuinely miss if they were gone.
22. Who did God put in your path this week, and what did they bring you?
23. Write about a prayer from last year that was answered in a way you can only see now.
24. Name a hard thing you are grateful for, even though it hurt at the time.
25. What did your body let you do today that you usually take for granted?
26. Recall a time provision showed up at the last minute. Tell the whole story.
27. What is one relationship you would thank God for tonight, and why that one?
28. Write about a door that closed and what you think it protected you from.
29. Name a small mercy from this otherwise ordinary week.
30. What are you glad you no longer have to carry?

Requests and intercession

31. Write down what you actually need this week, not what you think you should ask for.
32. Name three people and write one sentence of prayer for each of them.
33. Who in your life is suffering right now? Ask God for something specific for them.
34. What decision is in front of you? Ask for wisdom, then write what wisdom might look like here.
35. Pray for someone you find difficult. Ask for one genuinely good thing to come to them.
36. Write about a fear you want God to meet you inside of, not just remove.
37. What are you asking God to change in you, not only in your circumstances?
38. Name a situation that feels stuck. Ask honestly for it to move.
39. Pray for someone who does not believe. Write what you hope becomes true for them.
40. What would you ask for if you truly believed He was listening? Ask it now.

Listening and reflection

41. Sit quietly for two minutes, then write the first honest thought that surfaced.
42. Where do you sense God has already been speaking, even in something you ignored?
43. Reread yesterday's entry. What pattern do you notice in what you keep bringing up?
44. Name a passage of Scripture that has stayed with you (cite it, do not copy it out) and write what it stirred.
45. What has God seemed to be gently, repeatedly nudging you toward?
46. Describe the difference between the voice of fear and the voice of peace in you today.
47. If you got quiet enough to hear one thing, what do you suspect it would be?
48. What have you been asking for that might already be answered through people around you?
49. Walk through your day slowly, the way the Examen does. Where did you feel most alive, and least?
50. What is one thing you sensed today that you want to test, and keep if it turns out to be true?

Hard seasons and doubt

51. Write honestly about a prayer that has gone unanswered. Say how that actually feels.
52. Where does God feel far away right now? Describe the distance without rushing to fix it.
53. What are you angry at God about? Write it as if He can handle it, because He can.
54. Name a doubt you have been afraid to say out loud at church.
55. Write a lament: name what is wrong, ask how long, and end wherever you honestly end.
56. What promise are you struggling to believe actually applies to you?
57. Describe a season when your faith felt dry. What, if anything, kept you here?
58. What would you say to God if you were completely honest and unafraid of being wrong?
59. Where are you tempted to give up? Write it down instead of pretending you are fine.
60. Name a grief you have not brought to God yet. Bring it here.

Prayers for specific people

61. For your household: write one sentence of prayer for each person under your roof.
62. For someone who hurt you: ask for the ability to forgive before you feel like forgiving.
63. For the young people you love: what do you most want to be true for them?
64. For a friend in a hard stretch: what do they need that you cannot give them yourself?
65. For a rival or an enemy: ask for one honestly good thing on their behalf.
66. For a marriage (yours or one you love): write what you hope for that relationship.
67. For a leader you disagree with: pray for them by name, without the argument.
68. For yourself, ten years from now: what do you hope you will have become?
69. For someone who is dying or grieving: sit with them on the page and say the hard thing.
70. For your church or community: what do you long to see change there?

Why prayer journals get abandoned

Almost everyone who starts a prayer journal means it. The notebook is nice. The first week is honest and full. Then a morning gets away from you, and a phone gets picked up before the pen does, and the streak quietly ends. The journal was never the problem. The problem is that prayer is quiet and your phone is loud, and quiet loses that fight most mornings.

If you want to pair prayer with a thankfulness practice, our gratitude journal prompts work well alongside these, and the broader journal prompts collection covers everyday reflection.

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