Undistracted Devotion: The Joy of Journaling

Over the last several years, one spiritual discipline that has greatly enriched my walk with Christ is journaling. After some trial and error, I found something what works for me (a journaling app called "Day One"). 

It’s been a game-changer.

And I want to encourage you to consider journaling, too. Not for others. Not for publication. Just for you—and for the Lord. I encourage you to consider it as a spiritual discipline, a way to deepen your contemplation of God and express your love for Him. 

Here are five reasons why journaling may be one of the most fruitful habits you haven’t yet formed:

1. Journaling Cultivates Gratitude

Taking a few minutes to write about the day’s events has helped me see just how rich my life is in God’s goodness. So many blessings pass by unnoticed—until I write them down. Journaling helps me stop and reflect on the conversations I had, the small mercies I received, and the beauty of life in God’s world. It opens my eyes to grace, and quite often, journal entries turn quickly into written prayers of thanksgiving to God. 

If we are not careful, we only notice life's hardships while overlooking God's blessings. A journaling habit allows us to better consider both.

2. Journaling Records God's Grace

I used to think I had a good memory—until I realized I couldn’t remember what I did last Tuesday. If that’s true of last week, how will I remember what God is doing in my family, in our church, or in my own soul? 

Journaling helps preserve the dash between the dates—the ordinary moments that make up our lives. 

In the Old Testament, God’s people built physical memorials to remember what He had done. One simple way we can follow their example is to record God’s faithfulness in writing.

We all remember the big moments. But the little moments? The day-to-day faithfulness, the unremarkable Wednesdays? What if those are the moments where sanctification really happens? What if the ordinary is the portal to glory? 

3. Journaling Brings Clarity

Have you ever read your Bible in the morning only to forget what you read by lunchtime? Writing a brief summary of what you’ve read helps cement the truth in your mind. It slows you down, helping you process and personalize God’s Word. I’ve found that even a few sentences of reflection can go a long way to bringing understanding. 

Additionally, if, when you try praying, you catch your mind wandering off like a dog following its nose, writing your prayers can be like a leash on that prone-to-wander dog. Simply writing out your prayers to God goes a long way to arrest distraction and keep your focus on God. After all, much of what we read in the Psalms are simply the written prayers of David as he walked through life. If it was good enough for David (and all the other people who prayed in the Bible), perhaps it might be good enough for you, too. 

4. Journaling Fuels Creativity 

Often, a fuzzy concept becomes clear only as I write it out. That's how this blog post started. Just a few bullet points in my journal that I came back to. The seed of an interesting idea flourishes as you write. One of the benefits to journaling that took me by surprise was how it woke up the comotose creative in me. I'm analytical by nature, but writing has helped me begin building creative muscles atrophied (or non-existent) through some easy reps in my daily journal. 

5. Journaling Facilitates Meditation

In my view, meditating on God’s Word is the key to making it “stick.” Reading Scripture is one thing—but turning it over in our minds, applying it to our lives, and praying it back to God? That’s where transformation happens.

Journaling helps me bridge the gap between reading and prayer. It forces me to slow down, to break a passage apart, and to think it through. I never write with an audience in mind—only for me and God. My journal entry might just be a single phrase from my devotions, or it might be a prhase-by-phrase breakdown of a paragraph. Or it might be a prayer to God that moves through a text praising Him for His attributes, confessing my sin exposed through His commands, thanking Him for the gospel, or offering supplication based on the priorities of the passage. 

For example, I was recently reading through Psalm 130. The day before, I handled a conversation poorly. Verses 3–4 stood out: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” 

That hit home. I wrote, I prayed, I confessed—and I experienced God’s grace afresh. 

Conclusion: 

You don’t need to be a writer to start journaling.

You just need to be a Christian who wants to grow. So try it—pen and paper, app or notebook, morning or night. You might be surprised by the joy it brings.