How I Read My Bible, Journal, and Do My “Quiet Time” Every Morning

Feeling lost as to how to begin reading your bible every day and journaling about it? Need some guidance? After many emails and comments, I decided to share how I do my “quiet time” each morning. Hope this helps!

If you follow me on snapchat, you’ve seen me every once in awhile post a photo on my story of my journal or devotional book (if not, sarah_grace11).

After many people replying to those snaps and asking “what book do you use?!” “where did you get your journal?!” “how do you journal?!”

So, I wanted to make a blog post (and video in case you are more of a visual person!) on how I go about mine! But one thing I want to say as a disclaimer..there is no “right way”.  Every person does things a little different, and thats awesome! I just wanted to share how I go about mine in case you need some help, are just starting out for the first time, or wanting a fresh way to do it!

This is my way of setting the tone every day to be more hopeful, relaxing, and joyful. Some people do yoga, some meditate, this “quiet time” is what I do!

There is no “equation” to do your quiet time or spend time with Jesus! So when I list things in numbers or by bullets, it’s just a way to illustrate how I do mine. By no means do you need to follow it exactly 🙂 Do what makes you feel close to Jesus!

My Quiet Time {broken down}

• My Four Tools:
  • My Bible: for actually reading chapters and verses my devotional leads me to
  • Jesus Calling Devotional: the devotional book I start my quiet time out with to give me direction in my reading and day’s focus (this one is AWESOME, but there are many others out there!)
  • Journal: I buy mine from any and everywhere, but usually either TJ Maxx or a bookstore. I love buying ones that have an encouraging quote or verse on them.
  • My laptop: for playing background worship music and looking up commentaries on any verses I have questions on. But I make sure to then turn my screen’s brightness totally off so I’m not distracted after getting the music on 🙂
• How I go about it:
  • First, I always turn on worship music
    •  I feel like a little background noise versus complete silence actually helps me focus better and gets my heart and mind in the right place!
  • Second, I open my journal up, date it, and write down two things:
    • What I’m thankful for:
      • This is a new step for me, but I’ve realized just how awesome it is to start off every day like this. It changes my mood instantly and sets the tone for the entire day by listing all the great things in my life that I’ve been blessed with or ways I’ve seen God working in my life
    • What I’m “pouring out”:
      • aka, what is on my mind or anything I’m stressing out about that is hindering me from being completely focused on Jesus

• 3rd, I open up my devotional to that day’s lesson and read it
  • But I don’t just read it and say “oh thats good”. I think about what meaning it has to me, how it applies to my life, and what God is trying to teach me or bring to my attention

• 4th: I read the entire chapters of each verse the devotional gives me
  • The devotional usually gives me about two or three verses, but I think its so important to know the context of the verses, and read more than just a verse. So I read the entire chapters of the verses the Jesus Calling provides that day!
  • Lately this is how I’ve been finding guidance to read the bible, but sometimes, I pick a book and go through one chapter a day, and sometimes, I follow a reading plan I find online like the one my church back home creates each month!(see here)
  • Also, recently bought a pretty cool “bible-lighter”, that is basically like a crayon but is meant to highlight your bible without bleeding through like normal high-lighters haha.

• Extra: lately I’ve been writing down favorite verses I come across on little colorful papers I cut up, and putting them in a jar.
  • I figure that it will be great to have some inspiration down the road and be able to pull out an encouraging verse when I need it 🙂

• 5th: I journal my thoughts on the devotional and verses
  • Sometimes I write down lines of the devotional that really hit me or struck home so that I can come back in the future days and weeks and remind myself of it. Sometimes I write down verses I read that really had meaning to me or that I learned something from. Like I said, there is no exact formula, and even I change things up each morning!
  • I then write down “my thoughts” on how all that I’ve read applies to my life, what I can work on, or anything new I learned.

 

• 6th: I write down my prayer
  • Now I use to just pray in my mind at this point in my quiet time, but I realized how easily I get distracted AND how cool it is to come back later and see how prayers were answered. So now, I write down a shorter prayer that includes what I’m thankful for, what I’m needing to work on, anything on my mind, and any specific requests of that day or week. Then I extend my prayer longer in my mind 🙂

• Done!
  • Like I said, there is no specific formula though. So hope this simply gives you an idea how I do mine.
  • I also like to make a list every Sunday of all the things I realized throughout the week I need to work on 🙂

• Night Time Routine
  • I use to be really bad about working all the way up till I shut my eyes and went to bed on either school work or blogging stuff. But now I make myself shut down all “work” at least an hour before and read a chapter or two of a good book that relaxes me!
  • Currently: Reading Jeff Bethke’s new book, It’s Not What You Think
  • Other good reads in my past: Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge, Jesus > Religion by Jeff Bethke, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, Spoken For by Alyssa Bethke, Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis, Redeeming Love, Crazy Love, and so many more!

So there it is! That is how I journal and spend time with Jesus every morning! Hope this helps someone out there needing some guidance.

Questions for YOU

• How do you set the tone for a stress-free day every morning? Yoga? meditation? a quiet time like me?
• What is your favorite quote or verse that encourages you weekly?
• Are you following me on snapchat?! (Sarah_Grace11)   🙂

Here is the video in case you are visual!