We know that life will “happen” to all of us, but until it does, we are so busy or distracted that we often fail to prepare for those future difficulties. The Bible tells us that troubles will come to the just and the unjust; there is no one who is an exception to dealing with the difficulties of life. We sympathize with those we love who are dealing with heartache, but only when it comes to us personally do we sit up and think, “Oh, NOW I understand!”
Every day, I take a handful of supplements. While I do have some health concerns I need to manage, I do not take all these vitamins and minerals for just those health conditions. Many of these supplements are primarily for prevention: to keep my immune system working at its best, to keep my joints working without pain, to avoid allergy attacks, and the list continues. The idea of these preventative supplements is either to prevent the suffering or to be able to manage it better when it comes my way.
God’s Word is one of our greatest supplements, especially in tough times. As a child, I memorized Psalm 119:11: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. However, the verse before that says, With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. In rereading the beginning of Psalm 119, we can see a lot of seeking God, but much of it is laced with “preventative” measures to avoid turning from God.
In this devotion, I want to discuss one helpful “preventative” we can use every day to keep us close to the One Who can bring us the best kind of comfort and peace in the tough times.
Several years ago, a dear friend was being dealt a difficult dose of life’s troubles. She asked me for ideas because the stress and heartache made reading her Bible almost overwhelming. She needed ideas of how to simplify it. We discussed journaling, what it was and how to do it. She gave it a solid try and found it was the perfect avenue, a spiritual supplement, to keep her in God’s Word. It helped her to sort her thoughts and feelings while also allowing God to teach and comfort her.
I am a huge proponent of journaling. Whether struggling with finding the right “avenue” to get in God’s Word or needing an ordered way to get fed from the Bible, journaling is an excellent option. There are many ways to journal, and while I could take the time to list them all here, I want to tell about a new option that will make journaling easy.
Binding the Brokenhearted is a ministry of our church that offers grief and loss support in local workshops and through an online community. Recently, they added monthly mini journals to their resources. The first two deal with hope and gratitude, and two more that will be available in the next couple of weeks are focused on encouragement and comfort. The plan is to release more than a dozen journals in the coming months, with many more in the works!
Here are a few ways a journal such as these can help someone:
- Creates a structured way to consume the Bible
- Builds a consistent habit of walking with God
- Keeps accountability in staying in the Word
- Enables the mind to meditate on a verse each day
- Allows space to sort thoughts, feelings, and goals
- Gives a consistent, steady diet of Scripture to help with spiritual growth
I encourage you to give this avenue a try. You may even know of someone who can be helped immensely by journaling and for whom these would make an excellent gift. These journals can even be ordered one-by-one or, even better, as a subscription by the month, year, or longer.
Two have already been published. Here is a look at the gratitude journal:
I especially love the hope journal:
You can learn more about these journals and Binding the Brokenhearted Ministries here:
All in all, journaling can really help us to stay in the Bible and under the umbrella of God’s comfort during the tough times. Also, it is an excellent preventative supplement so that when life’s storms inevitably come our way, we have a great resource to help us survive and even thrive when the clouds finally move along.
by Tracie S. Burns
