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You are here: Home / Christian Living / 8 Reasons Why I Journal—and Why You Should Too
8 Reasons Why I Journal--And Why You Should Too

8 Reasons Why I Journal—and Why You Should Too

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If you’ve ever put on a pair of jeans that you haven’t worn for months, you may have been surprised by a difference in the way they fit—or maybe they didn’t fit at all! Gradual changes can escape your notice, which is why it’s important to track your spiritual journey. Sure, there are life-changing moments that produce immediate transformation, but more often change occurs gradually over time.

Journaling is an important discipline that can help you set spiritual goals for yourself and record the progress you’ve made toward those goals. It charts your course with God.

Eight Reasons Why You Should Journal

  A journal helps you remember God’s works.

Recalling God’s past faithfulness is a powerful motivator. In the Old Testament, God’s people would erect standing stones to commemorate places where the Lord moved visibly in their lives (Genesis 28:18-21; 35:14-15; Exodus 24:2-4). The apostle Peter alluded to this practice when he called Jesus Christ a “living stone” and instructed believers to offer their lives as “living stones,” or monuments, to His goodness (1 Peter 2:4-5).

Journaling can be a dynamic way to inventory the progress you’ve made on your spiritual journey and to remind yourself of God’s faithfulness. By recording spiritual victories as they come, you can set standing stones of triumph around your heart, preparing yourself for the next storm.

  A journal helps you grow in honesty.

They say the truth hurts, and often they’re right. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Think of your journal as a faithful friend. It might not always tell you what you want to hear, but its honesty unlocks the door to spiritual growth. Through the Psalms, we witness some of the most difficult moments of David’s life, written from his own point of view, and many of them read just like journal entries. He cries out to the Lord with words like, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1-2) Now that’s blunt! But David’s raw honesty is what opened the door for God to work in his heart. A journal helps you to face where you are, so you can get to where you need to be.

Meme: A journal helps you face where you are, so you can get to where you need to be.

  A journal helps you increase your awareness.

After an ordeal with cancer many years ago, my perception of life transformed from grainy black and white to high-resolution Technicolor. I began to see and notice things that I had never before stopped to notice. Everyday experiences were no longer lost in the shuffle of schedules and appointments. I began to observe a pattern in what God was doing in my life.

And when did my more acute observations begin? When I started to write down what was happening to me and when I took the time to reflect on them afterward. I think this is what Arthur Gordon had in mind when he wrote the following words in A Touch of Wonder:

How do we keep in the forefront of our minds the simple fact that we live in an indescribably wonderful world? It’s not easy. Routine dulls the eye and the ear. Repetition and familiarity fog the capacity for astonishment. Even so, moments come to all of us when everything suddenly seems fresh and new and marvelous. The gift of awareness makes possible some of our happiest hours. We need to be receptive and grateful for it.1

  A journal helps you track your progress.

Your spiritual journal is a place to record each date and time that you interact with the Lord. Without such reflections, you will not experience the motivating power of incremental success. Simply maintaining the daily discipline of journaling is an achievement worth recognizing!

  A journal helps you regain momentum where you lost it.

If you don’t have a tool for self-examination, the devil will use your down times to destroy you. He will use your difficult days to put you in a spiritual funk. You need a place to go back and say, “Here we go again, Lord. Let’s start this again.” Through journaling, you become more aware of the kind of things that tend to bog you down.

  A journal helps you reject bad habits.

Your journal will help you record your successes and failures, teaching you how to deal with the issues—to see them and face them, then reject them. It is a progress report of how you are doing in areas where you have been struggling. When you reread your journals, you may find that certain circumstances make you vulnerable to neglecting your time with the Lord. When you recognize what these situations are, you can prepare strategies to overcome them.

Meme: Your journal is a progress report of how you are doing in areas you have been struggling.

  A journal helps you reinforce good habits.

Reflecting on the positive will underscore good habits and drive them deeper into your subconscious mind, so they will become more and more a part of who you are in Christ. In One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp encourages us to become more aware of God’s everyday blessings through journaling, and she shares some of the commonplace blessings for which she is thankful:

  1. Morning shadows across the old floors
  2. Jam piled high on the toast
  3. Cry of blue jay from high in the spruce2

There is beauty and blessing all around us. Having eyes to see God’s grace at work in our world and our soul calls for intentional awareness.

The hardest part about creating good habits, like thankfulness, is mustering the discipline to continue. But once a pattern is developed, it becomes second nature.

  A journal helps you reach your spiritual goals.

Memorable family vacations do not just happen, and neither does spiritual growth. Both require preparation and goal setting. Some of us would be embarrassed to account for the amount of time we spend on recreation compared to the time we give back to God. The Lord expects us to exercise personal discipline and take our relationship with Him seriously. (1 Timothy 4:8)

As a Christian, your journal is a place to record the works and ways of God in your life.
Your journal can also include an account of daily events,
a diary of personal relationships,
a notebook of insights into Scripture,
and a list of prayer requests.
—Donald Whitney3

Five Tips for Journaling

  Purchase a journal. It can be an ornate diary from a bookstore or a simple spiral notebook from the drugstore. Your journal can take the form of your computer or smartphone as well.

  Begin by putting the date and time at the top of the page. Remember, this is a record of your time with God.

  Read a portion of Scripture and enter the reference at the top of the page under the date and time.

  After your reading, ask God to give you something that you will want to write down. Spend time reflecting on God’s words and your own thoughts. Ask God to cause His Truth to intersect with your life in such a way that you are aware of what He is trying to teach you.

  At the end of a month or six months or a year, go back and harvest your journal. Review what you have written and reap the blessings of your honesty and growth.

Rereading a journal is like viewing a forest from a helicopter. From that fluid height you can see the larger contours of the land, the way the trees clump and break, the vivid color contrasts between evergreens and maples, the cliffs and streams and rocks that interrupt the flow of the landscape. When you are lost in the forests of daily crisis, caught in the underbrush, you cannot know where you are. Only from the height of passing months and years can you see your life in proportion and with true perspective. —Luci Shaw4
Meme: Only from the height of passing months and years can you see your life in proportion and with true perspective. -Luci Shaw

What else should I write about?

Journaling is deeply personal. There are many ways to do it, but you might consider focusing on these areas.

  Write about your experiences.

You can write about the people you meet, the things you accomplish, the problems you encounter, your impressions about the way your life is going. Putting events into words is often the first step to uncovering attitudes and ideas that should be taken to the Lord in prayer.

  Write out your prayers.

This enables you to be precise in your conversation with the Lord. If you struggle to stay on track when you pray, this could be a valuable tool for you.

  Write down quotes from books you are reading.

These should be quotes that have particularly inspired you or challenged you. Include the page number in your entry and how the quote affected you. When you harvest your journal, you may be surprised to find that the quote speaks to your heart differently than before.

  Write about your doubts, fears, and victories.

When you record your fears and anxious moments, later you can see how great a God you have, a Warrior who can conquer your fears and slay your anxieties.

In one form or another, well-written entries document the signposts along the path of your spiritual journey. The key is to get started. It may feel awkward at first, but over time you will establish a routine and a style for your entries. One of the best things about journaling is that you always know where you’re at, and your spiritual jeans will fit every time!

Some material in this article was taken from Prayer—The Great Adventure by David Jeremiah.

Sources:

1Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1974), 165, quoted by Ronald Klug, How to Keep a Spiritual Journal (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Press, 1993), 23.
2Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 45.
3Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1991), 195.
4Luci Shaw, Life Path—Personal and Spiritual Growth Through Journal Writing (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1991), 34.

~ ~ ~

It’s time to unpack all that God has given you! Everything You Need, Dr. Jeremiah explores 2 Peter 1:3-11 to highlight eight critical tools God provides to each of His people: diligence, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. When we use the equipment God provides, we can live confidently in His promise that we will never stumble.

Everything Your Need: 8 Essential Steps to a Life of Confidence in the Promises of God
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The Power of Confession

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
Psalm 32:4

California is a dry state that needs water to be transported over many miles to population and agricultural centers. Snowfall in the winter and melting snow in the spring are critical factors in replenishing shrinking reservoirs. In periods of modern droughts, aerial photographs document the receding water levels in reservoirs around the state—shorelines growing wider and drier as water levels fall.

Such is the picture David paints with his words in Psalm 32—a drought of spiritual vitality brought on by his own sin. When he failed to confess his sin to God, his “bones grew old” and he groaned “all the day long” (verse 3). It was like his soul was being evaporated by the heat of his own guilt and shame. But then the rains of grace came and David confessed his sin and God forgave him (verse 5). And he encouraged his readers not to make the same mistake he had made (verses 9-10).

Confession and repentance reveal the access to restoration. Hiding sin does not remove it from God’s sight; but when we seek God’s forgiveness, the refreshing living water from the Father is poured out on us and we are restored—that is the power of confession.

The way to cover our sin is to uncover it by confession.
Richard Sibbes

Treasure!

I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure.
Psalm 119:162

Earlier this year, a volunteer for a charity in Arizona was going through books donated for a sale. One was an old copy of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The volunteer decided the dilapidated volume wasn’t worth saving and was about to throw it away when she thumbed through it and found a hidden chamber. Someone had used a knife to cut a hole in the middle of the book. Inside was $4,000!

That’s nothing compared to the treasure you’ll find when opening the covers of the Bible. Perhaps it would help to think of it in those terms. Use your imagination to see every word of Scripture turning to gold as you read it. Think of every promise as a precious stone. See the words about Jesus in the Gospels as sparkling like diamonds. Visualize your daily Bible study time like a miser running his hands through a chest of gold.

The treasury of Scripture will enrich your mind, refocus your goals, replace your doubts, and redirect your path—but only if you read it and heed it. Start today!

To get the best use out of [the Bible] for daily life,…Give it the best and freshest, not the most tired and dull, hour of the day.
M. S. Kimber in The Sunday School World, 1893

Hello Heaven!

I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside.
2 Peter 1:13-14, NIV

Peter wrote his final letter shortly before his execution. He wasn’t discouraged; he was looking forward to the future. He spoke of “looking forward to these things.” and “[looking] for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13-14).

Life is full of hardships and heaviness. We have the promises of God to help us in difficult days, and we have the Holy Spirit within us. We have a purpose for being here—to refresh the memory of others regarding the things of the Lord. But we’ll soon put aside the tent of our earthly body, and what a relief! Goodbye hardship and heaviness. Goodbye trials and troubles. Hello Jesus! Hello heaven! Hello golden streets, glorified bodies, endless days, and the fresh air of New Jerusalem!

During difficult times, the hope of eternity gives us strength. If you’re prone to worry yourself to sleep each night, turn your thoughts upward and close your eyes thinking of heaven and its eternal throne.

A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They’re building a palace for me over there.
Harriet Buell, in her hymn “A Child of the King”

Overcoming Temptation

Temptation. Whether we realize it or not, it is part of our past, and it will be part of our future. The moment we resolve to stand strong and walk away is when temptation grows most intense. That is why Scripture is of paramount importance. God’s Word contains the answer to resisting temptation before it’s too late. Consider these verses:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full–grown, brings forth death (James 1:13–15).

Some people wonder about the value of the Old Testament in a Christian’s life. The apostle Paul addressed that question in 1 Corinthians 10:11—”Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition.” To what things was Paul referring? He listed them in verses 7–10. They are idolatry, immorality, infidelity, and disloyalty.

Temptation is not sin; yielding to temptation is.

With that background, Paul exhorted believers not to make the same choices the Israelites made—not to provoke God’s discipline by willfully sinning. None of us is above God’s discipline if we engage in sin. We must look for and take “the way of escape” God provides in every situation where temptation is found (verse 13). To think our temptation is unique is to believe a lie. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man” (verse 13). There are no “new” temptations in life.

The apostle James argued that if temptation becomes serious, it is because we have allowed it to do so. Our own “desires” entice us away from God and desire “gives birth to sin” (James 1:13–15). God doesn’t tempt us, but He may allow temptation to enter our lives in order to give us opportunities to make obedient and mature choices.

Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and He took the same means of escape that is available to us—obedience to God’s Word (Matthew 4:1–11; Hebrews 5:8). Temptation is not sin; yielding to temptation is. There is always a righteous choice to be made if we are willing to seek it.

Ready and Willing

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9

A leper approached Jesus and said, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus touched the man, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed”—and he was healed (Mark 1:40-42).

That event is a beautiful example of the willingness of God. In fact, there are no instances of Jesus being asked to help or heal and Him answering, “I am not willing.” There is a place where the Bible says God is “not willing,” and that is 2 Peter 3:9. In writing about the timing of the Day of the Lord (the end of the age), Peter says God is waiting for all who will be saved to come to Him. He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Said another way, God is willing for any who want to be saved to come to Him (John 6:37; 7:37). The question is never whether God is willing but whether man is willing.

Have you responded to God’s willing invitation to come to Him?

God is far more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved.
J. C. Ryle

Steadfast

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58

Paul’s letter to the people at Corinth was an exhortation to remain steadfast. The church in Corinth was an undisciplined church, and he was letting them know that even though the culture around them was in flux, their faith in Jesus Christ needed to remain focused and sure. It is true for us today also. How can we remain steadfast in our faith and avoid the pressures of this ever-changing world? By devoting time each day to the study of God’s Word.

As we read the Bible and immerse ourselves in God’s truth and character, our lives are changed—we become more like Him. God’s Word is a powerful litmus test for our souls and actions. As our lives center on God, giving priority to hearing His voice and reading His Word, we become bolder in sharing our faith.

Joshua had the confidence and courage to lead God’s people into the Promised Land because He believed in God’s promise and presence. We serve the same God who said: “And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8).

You can place your steadfast trust in Him.

When we find a man meditating on the words of God, my friends, that man is full of boldness and is successful.
Dwight L. Moody

Creation Care

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28

Marine litter is a huge ecological problem. Many countries’ coastlines are littered with plastic and debris, and there is an “island” of plastic more than the twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean where currents have accumulated the debris. Fish become entangled in discarded fishing nets and lines, with bellies full of plastic debris they have swallowed.

Such images are in stark contrast to the pristine beauty and glory of Eden as presented in Genesis. Though mankind was given the mandate to “have dominion over” (that is, to care for) all of creation, we have not done a good job. When God’s mandates go unfulfilled on earth, God’s glory is diminished. And that mandate extends to our personal life as well. Paul writes that we belong to God and we are to glorify Him with our care and use of our body.

When you see opportunities to care for creation—nature or your own body—do so as a way of glorifying the Creator.

The creation is both a monument of God’s power, and a looking-glass in which we may see his wisdom.
Thomas Watson