Journaling 101
Dear Friends,
Prepping this What She Said Daily Treasure Series has been not only fun but so, so encouraging and inspiring. This week, Marlys Roos returns as a Daily Treasure Guest Writer, and you are going to be so glad she did!
I have journaled for years, and God has used this practice to keep me steady, give me a place to pour out confusing feelings, and record prayer needs for myself and others. It is also a record of scriptural insights. Often, a friend will tell me journaling is not for her because she doesn’t know where to start, or she doesn’t want a written record of her struggles for someone to find after she dies! Understood. Yet there is a way for journaling to help us dig deeper into Scripture and discover treasures that open our hearts and minds to God’s mercy, grace, and love.
In this week’s devotionals, Marlys opens her personal journal as one example of journaling as a way of helping us dig deeper into Scripture and discover treasures ready to open our hearts and minds to God’s mercy, grace, and love. When she submitted these devotionals, Marlys wrote:
“After much prayer, I’m submitting these devotionals to you. All but the first one are directly out of my personal journaling. I chose to use them as devotionals because in the last year, I have had longtime believers tell me they had no idea how to journal or what to journal about. In these devotionals, I share examples of focusing on a single scripture passage or set of verses and writing down the thoughts and prayers that come to mind. I have been doing this for the last two years, and it has enriched my devotional times. So, I’m opening my journal to share, that others who may have thought about journaling can see one example.”
In Monday’s devotional, Marlys introduces us to her method of journaling and the Psalms she will focus on throughout the week. Tuesday–Saturday, Marlys shows how to take time to consider each phrase and how it reveals God’s character to us.
For example, in Tuesday’s devotional:
A psalm of lament, Psalm 142:1-7:
With my voice (not just my mind), I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD (not to others or my circumstances).
I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him (hiding nothing, not holding back).
When my spirit faints within me, You know my way! (He carries me.)
There is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me;(nowhere to hide or be safe)
No one cares for my soul (I have no one but God).
I cry to You, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” (my Hope and Desire for eternity)
Attend to my cry, (Answer me, O Lord!)
For I am brought very low! (Humbled, I bow prostrate before the throne of God.)
Deliver me from my persecutors, (from those without and from those within—guilt and shame)
For they are too strong for me! (I can’t fight them on my own.)
Bring me out of prison(Open my eyes and heart and mouth).
That I may give thanks to Your name!
…for You will deal bountifully with me.
The psalmist promises to praise the LORD once God delivers his soul from prison. Those words can be read two ways. A soul in bondage to sin cannot praise God before knowing Him, but the psalmist knows the LORD so intimately that he runs to Him in trouble. Yet the psalmist tries to bargain with God to release his “soul from prison”; if God does, he will give thanks to God. The irony is (and I certainly mean this for myself as a personal lesson to learn and apply!) that the key to this prison door is giving thanks to God!
So friends, let Marlys’ personal insights encourage you to dig deeper and journal your walk through Scripture as a means of growing deeper in your faith. Be sure to comment on these devotions, and we’ll be sure Marlys sees them.
Treasured by Him,
Sharon
PRAYER
Father, there are so many distractions; may we not miss the opportunity to soak in Your Word, to camp out in specific passages and experience how Scripture study equips us to live out our theology in response to Your grace and love. Amen.
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Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.
