God’s Word is Priceless
Scripture Focus: Psalm 139:17
“How precious to me are your thoughts God! How vast is the sum of them!”
Purpose:
Scripture journaling is a creative way to respond to reading, hearing, and receiving God’s Holy Word and then applying it to our daily life.
Program Idea
Like the word of God, scripture journaling is personal. There are different ways to express your responses to what you hear God saying to you. Journaling can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. You can use multiple supplies, or you can use one. Be open to using words, prose or poetry, drawing, painting, collages, or whatever else you need. Your journaling response becomes your worship. First Corinthians 10:31 states “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
To make scriptural journaling easier the women may want to consider purchasing a Bible that has a wide margin. Have a couple of examples for the women to see as this type of journaling might be new to them. There are many available on Amazon and vary in price from about $20 on up.
There are many ways to approach scripture journaling. Following are a couple of the more traditional approaches.
- Verse-by-verse: Select a scripture verse maybe one you have a want to memorize. After reading it, copy the verse as many times as you want to. Then write your thoughts and insights about what the verse says and how it made you feel when you read it. You might also write down any questions the scripture may bring up.
- Topic focused journaling: Select a theme to focus on like forgiveness, love, faith or maybe the fruit of the spirit. Search for verses that support the theme and write your reflections about the verses, the theme or both.
- Devotional journaling: After reading your favorite devotion, respond to what God is saying to you in the devotion. This can be in writing, drawing, painting, stamps, or whatever creative medium you want to use.
There are many decorating options. When setting up the supply table, bring any item that you think will spark the women’s creativity.
Supply List:
- Bible
- Notebook
- Magazines
- Color pencils, markers, gel pens
- Stickers
- Ink pads and stamps
- Washi tape
- Paper tags
- Glitter
- Glue
- Yarn and string
How Good it Feels
How many times have we sat in a place whether it was in our hearts, minds, or physical space with a sadness covering us and it feels like we are all alone. We think about how it feels for somebody to reach out with a text or a card to remind us that they are thinking about us. I don’t know about you, but when I get a note or a card in the mail or on my desk, a text, or a phone call for no other reason but for somebody to tell me that they are thinking about me, I get excited and, in that moment, it’s hard for me to even believe that I could be sad ever again. If this is the exuberance, and joy that can be felt from a notification that a person is thinking about you, image what the attention of God the father will make you feel like.
The idea that I am important to God can sometimes be an overwhelming thing. We appear to be very small and insignificant when we think about our status in this world. But when we remember the omniscience of God, we know that we have a place, a significant and a special place that nobody else can fill, where no one else is present. That place is in God’s thoughts. We know that nothing is too big, and no one is too small.
Psalm 139:7 tells each one of us that as individuals we are constantly in Gods thoughts, not just once a day, but constantly. How magnificent is it that the One that created something so vast and expansive as the universe finds us precious in His thoughts. He created you and me one at a time, individually, and specifically according to His thoughts, according to His purpose for us.
God’s thoughts about us don’t just run on the surface. According to Psalm 92:5 God’s thoughts are very deep. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God designed us according to the plans that He has for each one of us. Plans for good and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope. These plans were designated long before we were ever even born. Ephesians 1:4 (NIV) tells us,” For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” Not only did God have plans for our activities, but He also had a purpose for each one of our lives. These things He already knew before even the creation of the world.
In Psalms 139:13-14 we read, “For You created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.” Psalm 139:17 tells us, “How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” These scriptures identify for us, and remind us, how much God loves us that He took all His deep thoughts and put them into creating us, not as a collective of humanity, but each one as a child of God, made in His image specifically, beautifully, and individually. How good does it feel to know that we are loved and thought about constantly by God our father, Jehovah, the one true God, God Most High, El Elyon. There is nothing that fills that dark space of sadness and loneliness that we might sometimes experience more completely than this.
