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Now that I’ve shared several posts about what Faith Journaling is and how to get started, I wanted to approach it from a more practical place. I don’t always work from the same Bible Study — I’m bad about being in the middle of several studies all at once — so the days may or may not build on one another as we move forward. I’m six weeks into Beth Moore’s David study and there is so much good on the pages of her workbook that I’ll probably share many pages from 2 Samuel. We are also in the midst of a wonderful series at our church and I love reading short devotional guides from various online resources. I’m going to try and relax a bit where this is concerned and let God lead me to the place in His Word where he wants me to spend time each day and let sharing here be a byproduct of what I’m already learning.
The Point 2 Samuel 7:1-29Every other Monday night, I meet with a local group of ladies for a time of Bible Study. Last Monday night (the day after deciding to join the Write 31 Days challenge) we focused on the sixth session from Beth Moore’s David Study and I felt so strongly that it was the place God meant for me to start. We were reading in 2 Samuel 7 and David has just been crowned king over Israel. He is noting the contrast of being in a palace while the Ark of the Covenant sits outside beneath a tent. Nathan encourages him to build a house for the ark in verse 3 saying, “Go, do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you.” If you continue reading, God begins to remind David of his faithfulness over the years — his faithfulness in his anointing, his faithfulness in his protection, his faithfulness in the fulfillment of his covenant. In verse 11, God finally tells David that even though he thinks he’s going to build a house for God, it’s really God who’s going to build a house for David. And not just any house, but a royal dynasty – a legacy.
My favorite passage from this reading was verse 18, “Then King David went in a sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?” David was so overwhelmed with all that God had done in His life and where he found himself. It’s not hard to imagine that a shepherd boy didn’t often entertain dreams of holding court in a palace. The place David found himself had little at all to do with himself and everything to do with where God brought him. Beth Moore goes on to say that “we can know we’ve come ‘thus far’ when we begin to make the shift from OUR plans for God to GOD’s plans for us.” When we find ourselves in places and situations that we could have never imagined in our wildest dreams, may we sit before the Lord, overwhelmed, and cry “Who am I that you have brought me thus far?!”
The Process “Don’t be intimidated about HOW to document your faith. The important thing is that you’re doing it.” I must say this to my daughters hundreds of times a month. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with art supplies and begin comparing your work with that of someone more talented than you are. They don’t understand that I’ve been drawing and painting longer than they’ve been alive and that one day they, too, will have years of practice behind them. If I’m being honest, it’s easy to fall into that place myself. I know what skills I possess and Who gave them to me, but there are plenty of more talented painters and more scholarly writers and more spiritual thinkers. If we get caught up in the comparisons, we will miss the point of connecting with the scriptures.I wanted to start with some really simple products to show you that Faith Journaling doesn’t have to be hard to be beautiful. I had already drawn a few boxes around a few pieces of the scripture that I loved. Using watercolor paints and these aquash brushes, I added a light wash of pink paint to the background of the page (with a piece of plastic behind to protect the other pages of my Bible), taking care to paint around the boxed scripture so that they would remain uncolored. I used three different colors of pink, working from lightest to darkest and letting the colors layer over one another. You can let watercolor air-dry, but I like using a hair dryer to speed the process along! I knew I wanted to use these white stickers to spell out “Who Am I?!” in the margin, but I was short a few letters. Taking a cue from an artist that I love, I drew in the missing letters and let the color of the background show through the outlines for those letters. They aren’t perfect, but I like the combination of the two working together. I used a pigment liner to outline the letters, imperfectly, because I don’t like to pretend that my pages are going to end up perfect. I used patterned paper and stickers for the tab at the top and some leopard print washi to embellish the edges of the page. This was a very simple process and only took about 15 minutes start to finish.
Any questions? Sound off in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them all!
My Favorite Bible Journaling Supplies: one column journaling bible | mechanical pencils | pigment liners | crayola twistables | white gel pen | prismacolor marker | white eraser | distress markers | washi tape | craft paint | catalyst wedge | watercolor paints | tab punch | patterned papers | rolling date stamp | black ink pad. For more details about why these are my favorite, visit this post!
