Rock Your Bible Study Time (instead of just checking off boxes)

As a Christian, one of the most important daily habits you can have is quiet time with God. For me, my faith isn’t about following a religion, but having a relationship with my Savior – and it’s awfully hard to have a relationship with someone you don’t know very well.

Two of the best ways to get to know God are spending time in His Word and spending time in prayer (including listening to God, not just filling Him in on today’s to-do list as seen through my eyes).

I have often struggled with my daily Bible study time. Sometimes it’s hard to know what or how to to study. I had really been enjoying the SOAP method, but even then, some days it was hard to escape the feeling that I was just trying to check Bible study off my to-do a list.

Then, I discovered the Journal and Doodle Through the Bible study guides. I love them! So far, I’ve done the Ephesians study (which you can download for free), 1 Corinthians, Galatians (still working on it), and The Promises Advent study (which I’ll finish next year at Christmas {ahem}).

What I love about the Journal and Doodle Bible study guide

You don’t have to be an artist to enjoy doodling.

I thought I’d start with that one because, y’all, I am not an artist. I really enjoy drawing and coloring, but rarely do the results on my pages look anything like they did in my head.

And, that’s okay! I love bowling, but I’m terrible at it. I still bowl because it’s fun. I love the artsy nature of these journals so, even though the results usually fall short of my vision, I’m still going to use them because it’s fun!

Not only that, but I tune Pandora to my favorite praise and worship station and sing praises to God while I draw. It’s relaxing and gives me some much-needed time with God each morning in a way that feels nothing like checking off boxes. In fact, I often have to give myself a cut-off time so that I don’t get behind on the other things I need to do during the day.

Journal and Doodle guides are self-paced.

I’ve done lots of Bible workbook studies and I enjoy them, but, y’all, who has time for 45 minutes a day – every day – in a workbook? I spend the majority of those studies either feeling guilty because I’m behind or struggling to catch up.

The Journal and Doodle guides are self-paced and include checkboxes next to each activity so I can stop wherever I need to and pick up where I left off the next day. The suggested pace is a chapter or two a week, so it’s very reasonable. Even with the suggestions, you’re always encouraged to follow your own pace.

Some of that is because I’ve gotten sidetracked in my Bible study a couple of times, but mostly it’s because I’ve been slowing down, having fun with the doodling, and digging into the Word, which leads me to the next thing I enjoy about these guides.

Journal and Doodle guides help me dig into God’s Word.

I don’t feel like I’m rushing through these study guides or rushing to catch up. They’re inductive study guides that are simple and fun, yet really deep.

Each chapter in the latest study guide, John: So That You May Believe, follows the basic model of the previous guides and includes three sections: in your journal, in your life, and going deeper.

Sample pages from The Gospel of John study

The in your journal section may be my favorite because it’s all the doodling and getting a solid overview of the chapter – who is involved, what’s going on, and why the events are taking place.

The in your life section guides you to making practical applications of God’s Word to your own life. And, finally, the going deeper section, which is optional, offers a variety of extras like more information (background or historical context), word studies, videos, etc.

I’ve used several of the Journal and Doodle Through the Bible studies and I haven’t found one that I don’t like. If you’ve been looking for a way to get more creative with your Bible study, check them out.

images not my own used with permission from stone soup for five