Do you journal?
For the longest time, I hated journaling. I wasn’t much for writing. But there came a point, & I’ve had multiple points like this over the course of my life, where I wanted to go deeper with God. You know, it’s that desire you have when you feel like you’ve hit a wall or a glass ceiling & you just want more. You know there’s more. But you don’t exactly know how to get there.
The Best Question to Ask…
Whenever I have moments like that, there’s always a question I ask myself. And I probably tailor this question to the situation. But it goes something like this, “What do spiritual people do?” In other words, when I want to figure out what the next step is, what the next thing is, I try to look around at people who I think have it figured out & learn what they’re doing.
So if I’m wanting to become better at our personal finances, I want to ask, “What do people do who are good stewards of their money?”
If I want to become better at my marriage, I want to ask, “What do the people do who I look up to as having strong marriages?”
I often ask dad’s who are farther down the road than me, “What are some of the things you did right in raising your kids?”
Asking this question has helped me so many times. And when I look at the spiritual giants in my life, one of the things that it seems many of them have in common is that they keep a journal.
Bad News, Good News
At first, I thought that was bad news because, like I said, I hated the idea of keeping a journal. But, because I had this desire to know God more & this desire to go deeper in my relationship with him, I bought my first moleskin journal & began. The good news is that I knew this was something I could do. Anyone could do it. It didn’t require a lot of money or time. It didn’t require a seminary degree or advanced training. All I needed was pen & paper & a few minutes a day to get started. So I did. And I would say this is one practice that has literally changed my life over the past few years. Here’s what I’ve learned.
5 Reasons to Journal & How it Changed Me:
When I journal my prayers to God…
And here’s one more…
BONUS: Giving it to God.
One more thing I’ve really come to love about journaling is that is allows me to place my cares & concerns in God’s hands in a tangible way. We’re encouraged to do this in 1 Peter 5.7. But writing down those cares & concerns & giving them to God in written form has a way of allowing me to release them more completely into His hands. And when I do that, I seem to worry less about those problems because I’ve already turned those over to Him in a very literal way.
David did it.
I’ve often wondered if King David ever had any intention of having his journal, the Psalms, published & read by millions of people? After reading through the Psalms, I’m guessing the answer to that question is NO! David shares raw emotions. He doesn’t hold anything back when writing his words to God. He’s exuberant in praise & unfiltered in His desire to see his enemies silenced. But David was known as a man after God’s own heart. If we didn’t have the psalms we would probably wonder, “Why?” But because we have access to his journal we can see, we can understand, David was a man after God’s own heart.
So may you be a man, a woman, after God’s own heart as well. May you seek Him & find Him. May you ever be drawn closer to Him. And may His face shine upon you & give you peace.
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I serve as the Co-Senior Minister at First Colony Church of Christ in Sugar Land, TX. I enjoy sports, running, fishing & life with the family. I’ve been in ministry since 1999. My wife Alisha & I have three amazing children, Will, Ella Grace & Emma Love. Thank you for stopping by my website!
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