As we grow in our walk with Christ, knowing God’s word (and seeking it with zeal) is one of the most important things we can do. After all, he’s revealed himself to us in two primary ways: Through his Holy Spirit, which we received as a gift when we became Christians, and in his Word.
This post is the 12th of 15. In each post, I’ll be examining my personal “Top 15″ things leading to successful bible study. This series of posts can be filed under “Reflection.”
Click the link to view my last post on dedicating time for study.
Reflection – A Journal. One of the things I’ve learned about myself over the years is that I love inputs of all kinds. I soak up ideas like a sponge – even if they aren’t immediately relevant to my life. In fact, if you’ve ever used Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton’s “StrengthFinder” tool, “Input” is one of my top five traits. [In case you’re wondering, the others are Innovative, Strategic, Connected and … I can’t remember the last one.]
All the stuff that I “input” into my brain tends to rattle around up there – combining with other ideas – until a new insight emerges. But that happens best when I have a time and a place to reflect on the things I’ve just read. A lot of people will keep a journal of one kind or anohter to store their ideas, insights and learnings. In fact, my old boss, Jack Lord (the founder of Humana’s Innovation Center) used to think that kind of journaling was so important that he mandated that every leader in his team write a daily update reflecting on:
- What they’d accomplished;
- What they’d learned; and
- To whom they were thankful.
I may have been the only person (other than Jack himself) who didn’t hate daily updates! As I study the bible, I wanted to make sure that I had a place to store my reflections and ideas. And since I’m a social media geek, and wanted to get better with WordPress anyway, I started this blog as my reflection place. Even though this blog is only a few monhts old, I can already look back at my archives and remember what it felt like when I wrote my older posts … and it makes me really glad that I have a place to capture them all. And if anyone else gets any value from it – so much the better! Do you keep a journal of your bible studies? How does it work for you?
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