A vital part of pursuing wholeness is nurturing and prioritizing your spiritual growth.  It will be at the very core of any sustainable growth you achieve.  It will anchor you through the good and the bad, provide comfort for trials, and increase the joys.  And consistent spiritual growth will give you the necessary reserves to do whatever God has for the days He has numbered for you. 

  

So, if it is so vital for your growth as a person to prioritize your relationship with God, it only makes sense to pursue daily spiritual rhythms and routines.  And, this doesn’t have to be complicated.  The simpler the routine the better (and the more sustainable!)  

Many practices can and should make up a spiritual growth routine, like recording your prayers in a journal, scripture meditation, private worship, and acts of service, but for today, we’ll just tackle one of them: Bible reading.  We’d like to introduce you to a creative way of diving into the Word of God. Before we get into that though, here are a few tips to consider: 

• Use a bookmark and give yourself grace: Many people struggle with where to start when it comes to reading the Bible.  It is easy to let the overwhelm of where to start keep you from ever trying, but this simple habit offers a simple solution.  Just pick a method you want to use to read through the Bible, and then keep a bookmark in your Bible to mark your spot.  (Here’s a list of a few reading plans to get your juices flowing.)  The goal is to develop a habit of reading the actual Bible for yourself instead of relying solely on authors and Bible teachers to tell you what it says.   And when you do miss a day, don’t beat yourself up.  Just open up to your bookmark and read where you left off last time.  Never forget that He gives grace, not shame.

• Read and pray through the Psalms: Read one Psalm a day, and when you finish the book, just start over.  This daily routine is so simple but so life-giving as well.  The book of Psalms is considered the prayer book of the Bible, so it is naturally a great tool to use in your personal prayer time with the Father.  Whatever emotion you might feel, you will find a Psalm that mirrors it.  If you don’t know what to say when you pray, the Psalms can give your weary soul language to pray back to your Father.  
• As you read, journal: There are different ways of doing this as well.  You can copy a Scripture that stands out to you, write anything that you feel the Lord is telling you to do, or write a prayer.  As we write, we process it and internalize what we are reading, making the practice of journaling infinitely insightful and rewarding. 

Using the SIT method for Bible Journaling

One simple method for Bible journaling that can be very helpful and used with any passage is the SIT method, which stands for Summarize, Interpret, and Terms.  First, summarize the passage using your own words.  Then, interpret it: write any thoughts you have, questions, or even things you found confusing or hard.  Then, write down any terms you didn’t understand (because let’s be honest, there are a lot of words in the Bible that are not common in everyday life).  A dictionary or dictionary app is a great resource to keep handy to look up terms, and for difficult questions you have, check out Bible Gateway, which has a lot of helpful study tools!  Finally, after you’ve gone through the SIT method, write out a prayer in light of what you wrote.  Still have questions?  Pray and ask God to help you find the answers, trust Him as you seek to understand, and increase your faith in the process.  

Applying the SIT Method to Psalm 121

Ready to try it out?  Let’s look at Psalm 121 together and spend some time reflecting and journaling about this beautiful passage.  

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come? 

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. 

• Summarize the passage.  What is the main point of this passage?  (Try to think of the big picture as much as possible!) 
• Interpret the passage.  Here’s where you write out any thoughts, things you need to obey, emotions you are feeling, or questions you have.  
• Are there any words or phrases you don’t understand? Write them down and then look them up in a dictionary.  (Another helpful tip when you have questions: look up different translations of the passage you are studying  here to get a better understanding of uncommon phrases or terms.) 
• Write out a prayer in light of what you just read.

May you see the fruit of pursuing Him day by day, moment by moment, and find healing and wholeness as you sit with your Father, who loves you deeply. May you hunger and thirst for Him, find joy in the knowing, and experience His peace as you abide in Him, the Word. May you become intimately acquainted with the kind voice of the Holy Spirit as He enlightens your mind to understand God’s Holy Word. May you treasure God’s word for the gift that it is, a good and precious gift from a loving Father.