(Sterling State Park on Lake Erie, Monroe, MI - one of my favorite prayer places)
I've been keeping a spiritual journal for almost 30 years, and have read and responded to over 700 spiritual journals pastors and Christian leaders have sent to me as part of the seminary classes, retreats, and conferences I have taught. Here's my thoughts on keeping a spiritual journal.
A spiritual journal is a record of the voice of God to you. When God speaks to you, write it down. To do that is to keep a spiritual journal.
Apart from this, people write differently. Some include lots of detail as regards, e.g., the place where they are praying at, prayer concerns, even biblical exegesis. But the core of the journal is: God's words spoken to you. When I read the journals of others that's what I am discerning and looking for.
When your mind wanders it may be helpful to write down, in your journal, where it wanders to. The mind does not wander arbitrarily, but always to something like a burden. The wandering mind is a barometer of your current spiritual condition. Then, following 1 Peter 5:7, "cast your burden on God, for he cares for you." I find it helpful to get the burden on paper. To see it on paper makes it feel like its not inside me any longer; it's at a distance from me. This is not always the case, but often it is. De-burdening is an important part of entering into God's presence more fully and achieving a greater focus on God because one is not so distracted.
If keeping a spiritual journal is writing down what God says to me, how can I know it's really the voice of God? I have found that one better hears God's voice when they:
1) Saturate themselves with Scripture.
2) Spend MUCH time alone in God's presence.
3) Interacts with other Jesus-followers who spend much time in God's presence.
There are also some good books about this, such as Dallas Wilard's Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God.
Because the spiritual journal is a record of God's voice to you, it is extremely fruitful to occasionally re-read and re-meditate on your journal. A number of the things God tells you will be thematic in your life. it is important to remember such things. "Remembering" is huge in one's spiritual life. When we've gotten God's words for us written down it can be easier to remember them as we re-ponder them anew. The maxim here is: "I will not forget God's words to me."
A spiritual journal, because it is a record of God's voice to you, is about you. Not others. Yes, I sometimes write about others in my journal. If I'm upset with someone I use letters such as 'X' to denote those persons. I don't want my journal to be found or read by someone with whom I'm angry with. When I write down such things before God I'm primarily asking God to help, not 'X,' but me with the anger thing inside me.
Finally, what can you expect God to say to you? My experience tells me that God will tell you things like: his love for you, things he wants to heal deep inside you, things you need to repent of in your life, that he forgives you, things about his essence, a deepening of Scripture, and so on. And, God impart things to you, which when this happens to me, I write down in my journal. Things like: grace, mercy, peace, joy, love, hope, and power.
I don't believe journaling is for everybody. But remembering is. As is entering deeply into God's presence and hearing his voice.
