You’re Gonna Want to Write that Down…

Posted on by Jennifer Arimborgo

journal

“My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand… For the Lord gives wisdom…” (Prov. 2:1-6, NKJV, bold emphasis mine).

Reading this, I notice — those are a lot of “if’s!” Why so many conditions? Here’s the basic thing. Just like you and I, God wants to be wanted. He wants to be deeply, achingly, all-consumingly longed for and pursued. You know how He counsels us in Proverbs 4:23 to guard our heart above all things; to not give it away too freely? He practices what He preaches. He follows His own advice to a “T.” He is only going to share the deep things of His heart with those who truly yearn for them; with those that have earned His trust. He needs to know that we still steward well the spiritual treasures that He entrusts to us.

So how can He tell if we are really longing for Him? In this Scripture He gives us these action phrases to put into practice. This is what He wants us to do with the messages He sends from His Spirit to ours. These are the tangible ways we can show Him we yearn for His friendship and His wisdom:

  • Receive His words
  • Treasure them
  • Incline our ear to them
  • Apply our heart to them
  • Cry out, lift our voice for them
  • Seek for them as for hidden treasures

How? How do we treasure His words to us? Here’s the perfect first step: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you’” (Jer. 30:2, NIV).

Do you really long to hear from God more? Than start writing down every single thing that He stirs in your heart. Everything that sticks out from Sunday’s message. Everything that provoked you to reflection in that podcast. Every verse that popped up on Facebook and was exactly what you needed in that moment. Every inspired thought that Holy Spirit dropped into your mind while you were showering. Every possible thing that you recognize as His touch, record it!

This shows Daddy that you are treasuring His words to you. I promise you, when you do so, He is going to give you more. He is going to speak to you more often. When He sees that He has found a good listener, He gets so excited! How He loves to share the contents of His heart with those who really do treasure it!

I know. Our lives are so busy, and this sounds really challenging. Do you find journaling a daunting idea? Thankfully, it doesn’t need to be complicated or difficult. His yoke really is easy☺. Check out yesterday’s post for some helpful how-to’s!

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Do you journal? If so, do you feel like it’s made a significant difference in your communication with the Lord?

17 thoughts on “You’re Gonna Want to Write that Down…”

  3. I used to journal and it was so great . But now I don’t know what to do with my too many notebooks . Now due to your post I know it was more about the time I spent with God than all the beautiful things I took note of . I wonder whether I can keep a journal even on a phone because the notebook apps don’t really make me feel like I’m writing anything.

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    1. I hear you on that quandry, my sister! Especially if physical space is limited. I have a shelf-full of journals from over the years too. Recently, the Lord has been shifting me to keeping more of my journaling on my phone. I had been resistant to this idea because I so love writing things out in my handwriting, find it helpful in processing. But as I’ve been faithful in doing so, He keeps giving me more and more, and I can’t keep track of it all by the slower process of handwriting! So at this point I am keeping quite a bit of the new “downloads” on my phone, but also have a journal to process in handwriting as time allows. What a fun adventure!

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  4. I used to write down scripture and do bible study while journaling, it was quite nice, i would hear from God and sometimes when I analyzed and studied a piece of scripture, it felt as if God was holding up a mirror to me and I learned so much from it, but nowadays i’ve been putting it off, I had forgotten how precious that Time with God was, thank you for reminding me! God Bless You!!

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    1. You are truly welcome! I have also found that I have gone through seasons of journaling more and journaling less, but I always get back to it in the end if a “less journaling” season happens. It’s just so, as you said, precious! (Slow reply because we were hosting two missions teams from the U.S., but I so appreciate hearing from you!)

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  5. I have several journals and as the years have gone by felt they were taking up too much space. This post today helps me realize what a joy what a discipline they were and still are. Thank you.

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  6. I do journal, but find it difficult outside of my usual regular routine, which at the moment while in another (hopefully short) period of lockdown is difficult to maintain. I go out for lunch to be physically away from the office I work in, and I take my journal with me so at this time, while waiting for my food to be cooked, that I find the time to write to God and what is speaking to me. Over the past three weeks or so I haven’t managed to make the time to do it, and I’m not sure how to start again, even though that might seem as simple as picking up a pen and just doing it.

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