Journaling in My Quiet Time with God

Over the last eight or nine months I have really taken to journaling. It is at a point now that, when I go a while with out writing I can tell the difference in my mood and how I handle things. ​

In our Purposed for a Purpose Facebook Group, I took a poll and asked if people journaled or not and most said they do or at some point have. There were others that did not journal at all. Journaling has been around for a while and most have journaled, especially as a little girl. When we were younger we called it a diary. As we got older, I guess we change the name, but the idea is still the same.

Journaling is great for your mental, physical, and emotional health. In the coming months I will be sharing more about journaling, the benefits, methods and tips to getting starting and making it effective.

Today I want to share with you how I use and you too can use journaling in your quiet time with God. Journaling provides you the opportunity to:

1. Take hold of our thoughts- 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The unaddressed thoughts that float around in our heads have an effect on how we behave and how we think about things. Journaling your thoughts can really help you examine them. Write your thoughts down and assess how they line up against God’s word. Is this a truth, or a lie based on the Word of God? You can take this process a step further and record scriptures to support the truth for later reference. Ask yourself, Is what I am thinking evidence of me being a child of God? How will this thought contribute to me bearing good fruit or bad fruit?  Depending on the thoughts, I would encourage you to ask yourself if your thoughts support your faith in God’s ability or your ability? Philippians 4:8 tells us that we are to “think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable.” Many times, after I write down what I am thinking and go back and read, I find myself thinking, “What were you thinking, girl?” or “Why are you even worried about this situation in the first place?”  Seeing our thoughts on paper is different then having them in our head. After you have record your thoughts and determined that some are not true, noble, right, pure or love, pray and ask God to show you truth—to help you refocus your mind. Ask Him to safeguard your mind if you start to have those thoughts again by helping you to remember His word.  
2. Conversation with God on paper/pour out our heart- I use journaling as a way to talk to God in my quiet time. Sometimes it’s an intentional effort. Other times it starts from me simply writing my thoughts about my devotional or about what’s going on in my life at the time. Either way, I start writing and find that I am pages deep—pouring out my heart to my Heavenly Father and giving him all the things that were bothering me or just sharing how I am feeling. If I am being honest, sometimes this feels easier than the formal way of praying. Now this could be a Janita thing, but we can get in our head about prayer, thinking it has to be or sound a certain way. But this isn’t true—God wants us to come to him in our authentic state, mask off. He wants us to speak to him from our heart. When we write, especially in free flow, we aren’t tuned into the thoughts as much by correcting and making sure they sound right. We just write, flowing from within onto the pages uninhibited.  
3. Prayer: This passage and the previous passage can go hand and hand. As I mentioned before, oftentimes I find that writing what I am feeling leads to a written  prayer. A written prayer is a prayer nonetheless.  What I enjoy about writing out prayers is that you can go back and read them and recollect how God answered them. It serves as written track record and testimony to how faithful God is. When you find yourself in difficult situations or in a time when your faith is wavering, look back and see how God answered and showed up in the past. I know that journals can be private, but let’s say that your prayer journal was one that you openly shared or that your great grandchildren found. It could be a tool that God uses to plant a seed or nurture a seed in their life, drawing them into relationship with him or to a closer relationship with him, because they can see real life evidence of how he worked in your life. Because God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:11), what he will do for one, he will do for another.  
4. Meditate and memorize God’s word--I once heard a saying, God’s word close at hand does mean close at heart. This means that just because we have God’s word close by, accessible, that does not mean it is in our heart. It’s similar to when you are in church or listening to a good podcast and take notes; however, you never go back and read it in order to really digest what was said. Using a journal can help you to meditate on God’s word and memorize it, if we are intentional about it. You have to be intentional about going back and revisiting what you wrote down and going over the scriptures. Many times when I am doing my devotional, there are 1-2 scriptures that really stand out. I don’t always know why, but I write them down and re-read them a few times thinking about their meaning. I am also listening for God to speak to me as it relates to those scriptures and their application to my life. I don’t always hear God speak right in that moment or discern what the scripture means, but over time I get there. When comes to understanding a scripture, I suggest looking at other translations (e.g. Amplified, NLT, etc). Doing this can help you gain better understanding of what you are reading.  Once you write it, meditate on it, ask God for wisdom. Revisit your writing to really let God’s word be ‘close at heart’ too. In memorizing scripture, take a verse of two and write on notecard. Recite it to yourself throughout the day/week to help you memorize God’s word. Place them in places you will see them throughout the day as a reminder. Psalms 1:2-3 tells us that if we meditate on God’s word, we will be like a tree planted by the river and we will bear fruit and not wither. When we meditate on God’s word and memorize it we become more equipped to speak God’s word over ourselves and circumstances. Side note—don’t get so caught up in word for word, paraphrasing is ok as long as the meaning stays the same. We also encourage others, empowering them to embrace who they are. Memorizing God’s word will also help with taking your thought captive, as mentioned in passage one.  
5. Hear God speak - In general, journaling declutters our mind. We have so many thoughts that run through our head on a daily basis and some of them are on repeat, depending on the topic and the “seriousness” of a situation. If we don’t get the thoughts out we can become consumed giving them most of our attention. When we become consumed or focused on the thoughts, it can challenge our ability to hear God speaking to us. He could be giving you instructions, guidance or answers to a prayer, but because of the mental clutter we can't hear him clearly.  Journaling acts as an emotional and mental release. It can help you see the problem clearly by decreasing the distractions because when you “brain dump” it feels like a weight has been lifted. When we aren’t distracted we are more likely to hear God when he speaks.

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Journaling is good for you. It can positively impact the relationships in your life to include the most important one—your relationship with God. You can journal for many reasons, but if you looking for a place to start, I encourage you to try journaling during your quiet time with God. Regardless if you journal or not, incorporating journaling in your quiet time with God will help in developing and strengthen your relationship with God, which is what God desires of his children.

Until Next Time~
​J. Branch