# Journaling ![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51FP%2BL6nRsL._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Adam L. Feldman]] - Full Title: Journaling - Category: #books ## Highlights - in Spiritual Journaling, Richard Peace says, “Taken together, the Old and New Testaments represent God’s use of story to trace the thread of God’s relationship with people down through the ages.” ([Location 148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=148)) - This is what you do when you journal. You are recording God’s grand, epoch-spanning redemptive story as it unfolds in your limited, temporal sphere of existence here on earth. Your journal has the potential to record the continuation of the Holy Spirit’s work in our world! ([Location 150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=150)) - We are often so distracted by the “immediate” that we do not often take time to reflect on the “present.” Journaling helps us to attend to our daily lives so that we become more “present” in each moment. ([Location 167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=167)) - In Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Calhoun writes: In a consumer society it’s easy to accumulate experiences, believing the more we have the better! Yet experiences don’t necessarily bring wisdom, nor do they automatically transform us. We need to listen and reflect on our experiences in the presence of the Holy Spirit to learn from them. Journaling is a way of paying attention to our lives—a way of knitting the vast ball of our experiences into something with shape that attests to the state of our souls.2 ([Location 170](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=170)) - Both Calhoun and Peace use some very reflective words and phrases, like “listen,” “reflect,” “pay attention,” “knit,” “notice,” and “the state of our souls.” These words reflect a daily rhythm that is the antithesis of the half-person epidemic. A life lived in this rhythm is less prone to enslavement to technology, entertainment, and experience accumulation. ([Location 179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=179)) - “Journaling is a tool for reflecting on God’s presence, guidance and nurture in daily comings and goings.” ([Location 238](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=238)) - Journaling is the disciplined activity of recording reflections on life for the purpose of facilitating a deepening daily awareness of Jesus’ loving, personal, and active presence. ([Location 251](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=251)) - Spiritual disciplines are activities (means) that we engage in (effort) by faith and with consistency (intentionality) for the purpose of making ourselves available to Jesus Christ and His transforming grace (end). ([Location 255](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=255)) - Spiritual growth requires your effort in cooperation with God’s grace. You ([Location 278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=278)) - If you are not experiencing a deepening intimacy with Christ or bearing the fruit of salvation, chances are you are either not trusting in God’s empowering grace or not applying effort to cooperate with God in your growth. ([Location 309](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=309)) - According to the Bible, the goal of faith in Jesus Christ is nothing less than being formed in the image of Christ: ([Location 332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=332)) - Being a better, more moral and righteous person is not the goal of faith in Christ. They are happy side effects as you cooperate with God and His empowering grace. But the goal of the Christian spiritual journey is to be radically transformed by God into the very real image of Jesus Christ. ([Location 338](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=338)) - In Invitation to a Journey, M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., explains that spiritual formation is a journey or a pilgrimage. He defines Christian spiritual formation as a process: “Spiritual formation is a process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others.”6 ([Location 341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=341)) - This means that, as amazing as the transformation is that God works into your life, the reality is that through your spiritual transformation, God encourages other believers and evangelizes the lost. ([Location 345](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00GYB6DFA&location=345))