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Hi friend, In my first Bible, I used to read through Scripture, highlight what stood out to me, and use the margins as a space to journal—turning what I'd highlighted into a prompt for conversation with the Lord. I'd ask Him questions. 💛 Ask Him to clarify things. 🌱 Ask for help in the exact areas the passage was speaking to. 🤍 Or simply praise Him for who He was. Somewhere along the way, that simple practice formed an intimacy with Him I hadn't expected. John opens his Gospel this way: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.' John 1:1–5
✨ Jesus is the Word. So when we build a relationship with His Word, we're not just gaining knowledge—we're deepening intimacy with God Himself. The Bible stops being merely a book we read... and becomes an ongoing conversation with our Creator. 🌿 A Little Unexpected ProjectRecently, I stumbled back into that practice without even meaning to. The Lord had put it on my heart to use an old hymnal as a scrapbook, and I happily discovered the entire book of Psalms sitting right in the middle of it. I didn't want to cover the Scripture. I wanted to creatively respond to it. So I made a little flip book, just like the ones we used to make in elementary school, that lifts right off the page. Underneath, the psalm remains completely untouched. I started with Psalm 139, since that's where my Bible reading plan had me that week, and I have just enough room inside the flip book to journal through every verse. 🤍 What Psalm 139 Showed MeFrom the very first verse, God's character shines through. He is a God who seeks us out... who knew us before the foundation of the world... and who still invites us into intimacy. He has the patience to listen to every word we say with lovingkindness and tender mercy. Though He already knows every word before it reaches our tongue... He still delights to hear us. He invites us to speak with Him. 💛 Sit with that for a second. It wasn't enough for God simply to create us, like an artist finishing a masterpiece and hanging it on a wall. The God who formed us stepped into His own creation. He took on flesh, bore our sin, and gave His life so that we could know Him and be reconciled to Him. ✨ The Artist stepped into His masterpiece—not because He owed us anything, but because love compelled Him. He died for His artwork because He wanted a relationship with it. He wanted to hear our voices. That's not obligation. That's love. 🌱 A Question That Stopped MeThen I reached verse seven, and it stopped me all over again. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Psalm 139:7
If I'm honest... I sometimes find myself asking the opposite. "Lord, where are You?" There have been mornings when I've reread the same passage three times and thought, "Lord, I don't know what You're trying to show me." But Psalm 139 gently reminds me that His presence has never depended on my feelings. Our culture often encourages us to let our emotions determine what is true. Scripture gently calls us somewhere different. ✨ God gave us emotions. They are beautiful gifts. But they were never meant to sit on the throne of our hearts. Christ is. His Word is the steady place where our hearts learn what is true. As I've continued to walk with the Lord, I'm learning to let His Word tell my emotions who God is... instead of asking my emotions to tell me where God is. His Word has the final say. 🤍 When I'm anxious... He invites me to cast my cares upon Him because He cares for me. 🌿 When I'm weary... He tells me to come to Him and take His yoke upon me because His burden is light. 🌱 When I'm tempted to search for validation in my own thoughts or feelings... He gently reminds me to rest in Him instead. None of that is a new idea. It's one God has been speaking since the beginning. 'Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
🤍 A Final ThoughtMaybe that's why Bible journaling has become so meaningful to me again. It's not really about making pretty pages. It's about slowing down long enough to linger in His presence and His Word. To let Him teach us. Guide us. Transform us. And draw us into deeper intimacy with Him. When the Word becomes more than words on a page... when it becomes a conversation with Jesus... we begin to discover that He has been pursuing us from the very beginning. And somewhere along the way... we realize we weren't simply reading the Bible. We were getting to know its Author. ✨ The very Word who was with God, and who was God, from the beginning.
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