RESOURCES

Soul care is a gift you can begin offering yourself immediately. Whether or not I join you on your journey, these resources reflect my recommendations for the practice and discipline of developing a rhythm that focuses on your spiritual formation. Start by picking one that stands out to you and slowly begin integrating it into your life. As you feel God calling you deeper, try adding more. From time to time, you may feel led to move from one practice to another. This isn't about rules, and it's definitely not about overwhelming yourself with more to do. The spiritual practices are about helping you grow in intimacy with God, which should inevitably produce more rest, peace, and joy.

For those of you who may be questioning if spiritual practices and disciplines in the pursuit of spiritual formation, or sanctification, align with Biblical guidelines and principles, please take some time to read this article on Relieving Evangelical Anxieties Over Spiritual Formation.

There are a plethora of incredible resources already available to help walk you through how to do these practices and disciplines. There's no need for me to repeat what they've already said, so I am going to include links where you can explore those offerings. My goal is to potentially introduce you to ways of engaging with God that you may have never heard of, and provide some insight into how they are practical in your faith journey and day-to-day living. The one caution I will give you for any of these disciplines is that doing them for the sake of doing them is not the purpose. Going through the motions will not make you more holy. The goal is transformation into the image of Christ for the sake of others (progressive sanctification), through a deepening relationship with God facilitated by the practices.

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Prayer through journaling

Many resources specifically discuss how to do prayer journaling, Bible journaling, spiritual journaling, and so on. Most of them are detailed and organized in some way that may feel rigid if you aren't used to or appreciate following a particular pattern. Journaling "rules" may not work for you, and that's ok! The beauty of prayer through journaling is that there is no "right" or "wrong" way of doing it! You can write long passages, short ones, in-between ones, bullet points, or draw instead of write. Whatever you choose to do, think of it as a way to talk to God or to observe what God is doing in your life. You may not realize it until later, but every word you write or picture you draw will be a prayer to God.

Personally, for the bulk of my faith journey, I've never given much thought to what or how I am journaling. I just write. What comes out has definitely changed over the years as my relationship with God has deepened, and I've matured, but for me, the less I think about the structure of my journaling, the more real I am with God. What I've found is that the overflow of my heart poured out on the pages tends to reflect many of the recommendations offered for journaling. That's not to say I never follow any kind of guide, though. There have definitely been seasons where I needed a prompt or guideline to help me think more deeply or understand what I needed to do to cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work in my life.

Prayer through journaling can help you:

Learn how to apply Scripture to everyday life and live the Word of God.
Cast your cares on God by writing down your anxieties and handing them over to Him.
Find a true place of refuge with God.
Help you slow down your pace of life.
Bring order to chaos.
Become more aware of how God has responded to your prayers and remember the ways He has worked in your life.
Learn how you react or feel when particular situations elicit a change or response in your body or emotions.