You keep a Bible journal you’ll actually use by keeping it to one place, writing one verse and one line, and looking back once a week. That’s the whole method. It’s small on purpose, because a journal that’s easy to keep is a journal you’ll still have in a year.
This post is about writing, not drawing. If you came looking for Bible journaling with paints, stamps, and decorated margins, this isn’t that post. This is about notes, sermon notes, and reflections you write down as you read.
A journal usually stalls when the system is too big. A beautiful journal with a page per day sounds good in January and feels like homework by March. So the plan here is small.
Keep It to One Place
One journal. One place. Not three, and not “wherever I am when I think of it.”
If your notes are scattered across a phone, a notebook, a sticky note on your desk, and the back of a church bulletin, you’ll never look at them again. Pick one place and put everything there. A single notebook works. A single app works. The point is that when you want to find something, you know exactly where to look.
If you write in the margins of your Bible, that’s fine too, as long as it’s your one place. Just don’t split yourself across five of them.
Write One Verse and One Line
You don’t need to write a page. You need one verse and one line.
Read your passage. Pick one verse that stood out. Write the verse down, then write one line about it. One sentence is enough. It can be a question, a thought, or something you want to remember. It doesn’t have to be deep. It just has to be yours.
The psalmist wrote:
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119:11
Writing a verse down helps you slow down and take it in, and later you can find it again.
Sermon Notes That Are Easy to Find Later
Sermon notes are worth keeping, but only if you can find them again. A few small habits make that easy. For sermon notes in particular, how to take sermon notes you’ll use all week goes further.
- Write the date and the passage at the top of the page.
- Write the main point in one sentence, in your own words.
- Add one thing you want to do because of it.
- Leave space at the bottom for a question you still have.
That last one is worth doing. A question you write down today is something you can bring back to the passage later.
Look Back Once a Week
Once a week, read back through what you wrote. Ten minutes is plenty.
You’re not grading yourself. You’re just reminding yourself what you’ve been reading. You’ll notice things you forgot. You’ll see a question you can now answer. You’ll find a verse that fits what you’re reading this week.
Joshua 1:8 speaks of meditating on the book of the law day and night: slow, repeated attention. Looking back once a week is a simple way to do that.
This is the easiest step to skip, and it’s the step that makes the journal useful. Writing it down helps you slow down. Looking back helps you remember.
The Key Point
Keep your Bible journal in one place, write one verse and one line, and look back once a week. Small and steady beats big and abandoned.
If you’d like one place for all of it, My Journal in Righteously keeps your Bible Notes, Sermon Notes, and Reflections together, and you can add a verse to an entry. Free accounts can add up to 5 new entries every 7 days, and Guided Journaling with prompts is part of Premium. See how My Journal works.
