Journaling is something I used to do all the time. I used to love having a place to jot down all my thoughts, feelings, fears and even the things God showed me in the Bible. I stopped a few years back because I had a friend who read my journal and made fun of me based on some of the stuff they found.

A few months ago, I was given a new journal and began to realize how powerful journaling is. So I came up with a list of three reasons why you should start journaling if you haven’t.

1. It’s Biblical. Yep, you read that right, journaling something that the Bible talks about, well sort of.
   

   The LORD answered me: Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it.  – Habakkuk 2:2 (Holman)

   The Bible talks in this verse about writing it down. If God is speaking something to your heart, write it down. If you like writing songs about what God has done for you, write it down. If you have God inspired plans and goals, write them down. There’s power in writing things down, that’s why we’re challenged in the Bible to write them down.

2. It Marks Your Progress. Many times in the Bible, after God did something big in a person’s life, they would create a memorial to remember where they had been. They did this because it’s so easy to forget where you came out of. We get caught up in what’s going on right now in our lives and forget the progress we’ve made.
   People might think you were a little crazy if you started creating a giant monument made of stones in your backyard, but journaling can be a monument of sorts for you. You can look back in your journal and realize the progress you’ve made to this point.
3. It makes goal setting more effective. It’s easy to make goals and forget about them. You might want to practice your guitar 20 minutes a day. But three weeks from now, will you have forgotten about the goal you created? Journaling helps with this.
   When you see what you’ve written down weeks before, it reminds you

Whether you’ve never thought about journaling, or if you’re a journaling expert, it’s good to be reminded of how powerful journaling can be. Begin to record your thoughts, feelings, and the stuff God shows you from His word. You’ll be encouraged with how powerful journaling can be!

What are some benefits you’ve found from journaling?

There are many different relationships in our lives. We have friends, family, teachers, boyfriend, and girlfriend just to name a few. The thing about relationships is that sometimes they can be tricky. There can be times where it’s just plain tough to deal with certain people. 

One of the most prickly relationships in our lives can be our relationship with God. There can be many reasons why our relationship with God feels prickly. It could be because you don’t feel close to God. Perhaps you’ve seen fake Christians and you don’t want to be like them, so you don’t seek after God. Maybe something happened to you in the past that made you question God and His love for you.

There might even be times when you feel like God is like a porcupine. You might feel like He’s hard to touch and He’s far away. However, this is not the case. God isn’t going to let you get close to Him and then launch some quills on you, saddling you with a bad day or a disease to teach you a lesson. He also isn’t hard to approach, no God really cares about you.

Who Is God?

If God isn’t far away, or sending disease to your life, then who is He?

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. – Hebrews 11:6

The Bible tells us in this verse that God is a rewarder. He’s not like a porcupine. Porcupines tend to stick up all their quills when they feel threatened or when someone is too close to them. Many people believe that you touch God and you get burned, but that’s not God at all. This verse says that God cares enough to respond to and reward those who seek him

God rewards those who seek after him. He rewards those who get to know him, He’s not a porcupine that leaves you with quills in your hands for trying to get to know him. In fact, He actually rewards you and He brings you good things.

God isn’t too busy for you

It can often take a lot of faith to believe that God isn’t too busy for you. It’s sometimes hard to imagine that the God of the universe really wants to have a relationship with us, but it’s true. God wants nothing more for you to get to know Him. He isn’t too busy or too concerned with other people in the world that He can’t make time for you. God wants to know you and be known by you. 

He loves you and cares about you in a deep and personal way. His care for you ranges from the biggest issues to the smallest things that trouble you. He wants to show you your future and talk to you about your daily cares. We just have to believe that God wants to hear from us and have faith that He will reward us when we seek Him.

Why Does God Care?

First of all, God is a God of relationships. He created Adam in the garden to talk to Him and fellowship with Him. God cared so much about us that He sent His son Jesus to restore a relationship with mankind. God cares about you because He knows you. He knows all your inner workings, the silly habits you have, the funny way you chew your food and He loves it. He loves everything about you. 

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me,O God. They cannot be numbered! – Psalm 139:16-17

God knows you like no one else and cares about you like no one else. He wants to be in a relationship with you more than anything in the world.

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So what does this have to do with you?

God wants to be a part of the details of your life. For example, have you ever misplaced something? God wants to help you find it. Have you ever had a hard time recalling information on a test at school?  God wants to help bring that to your memory. But most of all, have you ever felt left out of the group? Like everyone belonged and you didn’t? Or just wished someone could really understand you? God can and He cares about you.

God isn’t some untouchable being up in heaven. He’s real and He wants you to know Him. However, it’s up to you to press in and get to know Him. Challenge yourself today to get to know God better. Spend time reading your Bible and make knowing God a priority in your life today!

If you’re a youth leader and you liked this lesson, you can download a youth group lesson outline and powerpoint based on this devotion to share with your youth group in our online resource center.