Connect Study on Journaling

Journaling
The Discipline in Focus
Journaling is really simple. Just write. A journal is a book or notepad or whatever in which someone writes. Journals can be kept regularly or only in times of difficulty or transition.

Think about this for a second: “Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God.” Agree? Disagree? Whether you agree or not knowledge of ourselves and of our condition is valuable in helping arouse our desire to seek God. Journaling is a tool for reflecting on God’s presence, work, and guidance during every day life. Journaling is a great way to be alert to our own lives. It can help keep you focused and help you understand your heart better. It can be a way of reflecting on your thoughts about God. God is always at work in you and through you for the purpose of making you like Jesus for his own glory and journaling helps us evaluate that process.

In counseling, a counselor initially goes through a process called “data gathering” when meeting with someone who asks for counsel. This step is crucial because it helps the counselor understand the big picture of what is going on. Without knowledge of a person the counselor has no idea where to begin or what the difficulty is. Journaling is similar to data gathering in that it helps us to see the big picture. It can show us our thoughts on a certain subject or it can reveal potential sins in our lives that we need to repent from. Journaling can help us see why we have made a certain decision and reveal times when God has answered prayer. Taking the time to sit down and write can be invaluable to a person who desires to be like Christ.


The Value of Journaling
1. Journaling helps with self-understanding and evaluation - There are many places through out Scripture that tell us how we should think of ourselves (for example, Romans 12:3). Journaling will help you see how you see yourself. Writing down events throughout the day and your reactions to those events will pay huge dividends in allowing you to gain insight into how you view yourself and others.
2. Journaling helps in mediation - Sitting down with the purpose of meditating on the word of the Lord and having a pen in your hand to write down your thoughts and insights will help increase your awareness and expectation of hearing from God.
3. Journaling helps express our thoughts and feelings to the Lord - Psalm 62:8 says to pour out our hearts to God. Journaling is a way to express our feelings and thoughts. We can pour out what is overflowing in our hearts. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (and the hand writes).
4. Journaling helps us remember what God has done - How often we forget what God has done. Journaling will aid us to be like Asaph who said, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:11-12). Stephen Charnock once wrote, “How worthy it is to remember former benefits when we come to beg for new.”
5. Journaling helps us monitor goals and priorities - Keeping a journal can help keep before us things we want to do and focus on. Also helps us with the other spiritual disciplines and keep track of our progress.


Scripture to Reflect On
Practically all the psalms could be considered journals, Lamentations could be considered a journal of the prophet Jeremiah, Psalm 16:7, 25:4, Hab 2:1, Joshua 1:8, Psalm 119:18.

How to Keep a Journal
-Remember the purpose of journaling - for the purpose of godliness.
-Find something to write in (notebook, a journal, loose leaf paper, computer)
-Jump start your journaling by listing one verse or idea that stood out to you. Meditate on that for a few minutes and write down any thoughts.
-Consider writing down any events or situations and writing your actions, thoughts, feelings, and responses.
-Write down any prayer concerns, answered prayers, joys, sorrows, success, or failures.
-You can journal daily or weekly.
-Make a journal of photographs, articles, or drawings that you find.
-Don’t worry about spelling and grammar.

Respond
1. If you are living your life at full speed then what do you do to reflect on your life and your experiences?
2. How does writing help you focus or know what you think?
3. What is it like for you to read someone else’s published journal or diary? Notice I said published not stolen.
4. If you had kept a journal of your life up to this point do you think it would be valuable for you to read and learn from or would you think it was a waste of time?
5. How can writing in a journal help you become more like Christ? How can it help you know God better? Or know yourself better?