Take the Plunge 2: Swimming lessons

I love to read and study God’s Word! It’s exciting to see how the words written long ago apply to us today. I’ve learned so much about who God is, His character, His promises, His plans and His love for people. Understanding why God said or did certain things helps me completely trust Him with my life. Another reason I love to read and study the bible is its one of the ways God "speaks" to me. I do not hear His actual voice but as I read He reveals the meaning of a particular scripture and uses that to guide me through a situation, become aware of an area I need to work on or equip me for a future task. It’s so amazing! Today I want to share a "swimming lesson" I’ve used to immerse myself in the Word and experience inner change.

Journaling- This is my absolute favorite right now. Gather a bible and a notebook, choose a book of the bible to read, praise God in prayer and ask for wisdom then start reading. As you read stop and write any bible verse down that stands out to you and what stands out to you about it. As you’re thinking about that, God may show you a deeper meaning or how it relates to your own life so write that down too. This is the goal for the exercise so read until something stands out to you and continue to read to a logical stopping place to get a fuller context of the verse you've written down; follow up by writing any additional thoughts. Sometimes God floods my mind and heart with a lot and other times it’s less so don’t get caught up in that; many times a fuller understanding comes a few days later as I read further in that book. End your session with prayer. This process has deepened my relationship with God and taught me to hear His voice. Having a journal like this has also helped when I’ve gotten stuck and felt my life was not moving forward. Going back and reading what I wrote over a period of time revealed to me a thread of consistency where God had revealed an area in my life I needed to work on. When I saw the bigger picture I was able to identify that area and do something about it.

Try this and let me know how you like it or write and let me know the way you get into Gods’ Word and the inner changes you've had. Tomorrow I’ll share with you a few other swimming lessons.

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right." (2 Timothy 3:16 NLT)

Be blessed-

Jeanine Black