Hi friend! Welcome to episode 21 of Tending Your Soul Podcast! I’m Mariel and we are walking through 5 tips for cultivating time with Jesus. Just like there is intentional prep work when cultivating a garden, we want to be intentional when tending to our soul.
We have considered knowing our purpose and finding our place for our time with jesus. And today I want to take a moment to consider the props we might need when we come to meet with the Lord in His word.
Now when we consider spending time in the Word of God, there are a couple different ways we can approach this. Some people simply read through the Bible. I led a Bible reading group in 2021 where we all read several chapters of the bible per day through out the whole year. We had monthly zoom gatherings where we learned about names of God we had been seeing in the Scriptures, but our daily rhythm was to read several chapters of the bible and that was it.
Some people prefer to really study the Bible. So they usually have an hour or longer they can spend in the bible unpacking key words, reading commentaries, and looking up cross-references. This usually requires several books or at least apps on the phone that expand the teachings. I love Bible study and I often do much Bible study, whether for the purpose of teaching a lesson or for the purpose of learning a deeper truth God is teaching me.
But my daily, consistent rhythm of meeting with God in His Word is neither a Bible reading plan nor a Bible study plan. In my daily time I use my TEND method to slow down and lean into the heart of God and see what He is whispering to my heart through His Word in just 1-3 verses per day. You can find out more about my TEND method at marieldavenport.com or even in other episodes of this podcast, where we tend through verses right here in the few minutes of this podcast.
So when I meet with God in my daily time, all I use for my TEND method is my favorite Bible, a little journal and my favorite pen. I pray with expectancy that the Holy Spirit will do His job and unfold the Word of God to me and show me wonderful things in His Word.
Now I do also have a prayer journal and a gratitude journal that I bring to my time with God in the morning, and I’ll explain that in a moment. But mostly when we meet with God, we really just need a copy of the Bible, since it is His Word and thereby it is how He speaks to us. Plus a journal and pen so we can make note of what He is teaching us and how we will respond. For me, writing out the lessons and the actions helps to hold me accountable before the Lord.
So I do also have a gratitude journal where I daily or nearly daily add to it the gifts and ways I see God loving me. I literally just number them down the side of the page and add a few more each day. I write things like the scent of the roses blooming by my porch, the weight of a newly grown tomato plucked from the vine, my husband taking my hand in the car, a text from my son that said “thanks mama”….any way that I notice the hand of God in and through others or nature where He is loving me. Keeping a record of these gifts has been a treasure years later when I can look back and remember these Ebenezer stones of His grace in my life.
If you do not have a gratitude journal, I want to encourage you to consider buying a simple notebook and starting on line one with number 1 and write specific ways you have felt loved, blessed or encouraged. Where have you noticed beauty? In what way has God made Himself known to you?
Write those down. Thank Him for them and watch how much more you will notice. We will talk more about coming with this posture of gratitude I our next episode too.
My prayer journal is actually a planner and prayer journal. It’s called the Faithful Life Planner and it contains all the space for both calendaring your life and praying through it. I’ll put the link to it I the show notes for you, if you’re interested in details on the planner. In the back of the prayer planner, I have added pages where I have turned Scripture into prayer and left blanks in the verses to insert the name of my husband or my sons. They each have a section in my prayer planner with their names in the verses and it has changed my life to pray scripture over my people. If you’re interested in your own prayer calendar, I invite you to download one at marieldavenport.com/prayer.
As you can see the props needs for meeting with the Lord can be few. The point is to keep it simple, when we make things more complicated, we tend to do them less and less. This is not study hall time or school, this is a dynamic, intimate relationship with the one true living God who desires to make Himself known to you through His word. Taking a walk with Him and listening to Scripture or praying counts just as much as an hour of studying Scripture. But when it comes to a consistent rhythm, when we are intentional and keep it simple and repetitive, we will find it becoming a place to tether our hearts in the midst of the tangling of this world.
And boy couldn’t our hearts use a stable resting rhythm these days?
How about for you friend?
Have you considered your purpose for meeting with God consistently?
Do you have the place and time that work for you?
And are you ready to gather a few good props, a Bible, journal and pen that you love and just come and say yes to His invitation to draw near consistently?
Let’s close by asking Him to guide us as we come to Him seeking His face through His Word.
Father, would you show us the purpose, the place and props to bring as we seek to come to know you through your word. Thank you that make yourself known as we get into the Word and I pray you would reveal to each of us the wonderous things of who you are. Amen.
Don’t miss our next episode where we will explore the posture that we bring to our quiet time with the Lord.
But for now, I want to invite you to a beautiful, thriving community of women online that gathers around the Word of God. We pray, praise and support one another in a private community on the platform of Mighty Networks. It’s similar to a facebook group, but it’s not on FB so we don’t have the social media distractions. Plus we gather monthly for a zoom call where we are currently learning more about the armor of God and how to arm ourselves in this season of preparation. We would love for you to join us! You can find out details at marieldavenport.com and click on community. I will put the link in the show notes. Also remember to check the show notes for the prayer calendar I mentioned in today’s episode.
Until next time, friend, keep tending your soul by the Word.
