5 Ways to Use Our New Creative Spiritual Journal

The following is an excerpt from the introduction to Draw Near: Your Creative Spiritual Journal. This bullet-style creative journal is designed to help you balance creativity and structure in your Christian walk. Available August 1 on our website.

Dear reader,

I am a compulsive doodler. Whether it’s a notepad to scrawl on when I’m on the phone or the drawings and notes I make during my husband’s weekly sermon, I can always be found with pens and bits of paper trailing in my wake.

But for a long time, those creative habits never made it into my spiritual life. My daily quiet time was dry and stilted. It wasn’t really reflective of the person I had been made to be, or even of how I liked to learn.

Then there came a period of particularly bad mental health. I struggled to manage my usual discipline of reading the Bible and praying each day. But I discovered what I could do to meditate on God’s word. I just took one small verse and lettered it or doodled it. It may seem obvious to you, but it had never occurred to me that my creativity could be used in my daily devotional time to help me connect with God. I was hooked and started to do this daily, even when my mental health improved. 

It may seem obvious to you, but it had never occurred to me that my creativity could be used in my daily devotional time to help me connect with God.

Then I got thinking about bullet journaling. A bullet journal is a planner, a diary, and a tool for self-reflection. You can use it to log daily to-dos and long-term goals, to take notes on the fly, to write journal entries, and to keep track of how you’re doing with particular habits or disciplines. Bullet points are often used to plan and collate information (hence the name), but a bullet journal is also designed for customization and illustration. It’s organised, but creative!

And I thought, why not design a book that brings that unique combination of creativity, reflection, discipline and structure into people’s daily walk with God? While this book can be used in a multitude of different ways, read on for five fun and helpful ways to use Draw Near.

1. Reflect on Scripture in Each Monthly Section

Draw Near is designed to cover a whole year, but it’s undated, so you can use it flexibly and don’t need to fear the weird guilt trip if you “fall behind.” There’s a “monthly” section first. To help you start thinking about how to engage with the Bible creatively, I’ve designed an artistic prompt based on a particular verse or verses. The first six months cover Psalm 103, an amazing psalm full of imagery describing God’s vastness, character and loving care. 

The second six months look at Ephesians 1:1-14, which explores what happens to us when we are united to this great, vast, loving God through Jesus. Meditate on these words and let them sink in as you complete the creative prompts. Remember that this is for YOU—so enjoy the process and don’t worry about the end result.

2. Track Your Prayer and Bible Reading

Each month also contains a spiritual habit tracker. This is to help you creatively mark off if you’ve prayed or read your Bible each day. It serves to show and help build good habits.

You can also mark off God’s unconditional love for you each day, whether you managed to open the cover of the Bible or not—so at least one chart can be filled in daily!

3. Plan Your Week and Track Prayer Requests

Then there’s the “weekly” section. Here you’ll find space to note down what is happening in your daily life and quiet times; to write down and doodle verses that are important to you week on week; and to write down your prayer requests (and record the answers!). 

4. Collect Sermon Notes Creatively

Each week also includes a page and a half that’s specifically designed for sermon notes. Add Bible references, key verses, and note your key takeaways.

 

5. Set Goals, Make Lists and Doodle with Bulleted Journaling Pages

Finally, there are plenty of blank pages, which you can use however you want. Make lists, set goals, or just doodle like crazy! You might want to just grab a ballpoint and start collating your info, or you may relish the chance to use your new fancy pens and washi tape and experiment a bit!

The key is, this journal is for YOU. It’s for your benefit: to help you be intentional in your spiritual life, and to show you how to incorporate the creativity you might not even know you have into your daily walk with God. I often hear “I’m not very creative.” Stop that right now! All of us are made by an infinitely creative God, which means that we all have creativity dwelling in us in some form. Leave the inner critical voices behind. This isn’t about producing revolutionary masterpieces; it’s about stepping into a richer embodied expression of connecting with God. Art and creativity are not frivolous but God-given.

As you start dwelling on parts of the Bible in creatively reflective and meditative ways, my prayer is that you’ll find yourself refreshed and full of new delight in Jesus. He’s the one whose words created the whole world—and who made and loves you, too. Pick up your pens and draw near.

 -Sophie