How to Start a Bible Journal: A Beginner’s Guide

Bible journalling is one of the most powerful spiritual practices you’ve probably never been taught how to do.

Not because it’s complicated. Not because it requires artistic talent or theological training. But because most people assume it does — and so they never start.

This guide is for the person who has been meaning to start a Bible journal for months — or years — and keeps putting it off because they’re not sure how to begin, what to write, or whether they’re doing it right.

The answer to all three of those concerns is simpler than you think. By the end of this post, you’ll have everything you need to start today.

What Is Bible Journalling — and Why Does It Work?

Bible journalling is the practice of writing down your responses to Scripture as you read and study it. It can be as simple as copying out a verse and writing one sentence about what it means to you. Or it can be as detailed as a full written reflection, a prayer, a diagram of a passage’s structure, or an artistic illustration.

What all of these approaches share is the act of engagement. Instead of reading the Bible passively — letting the words wash over you without sticking — journalling forces you to slow down, to think, and to respond.

The reason it works is straightforward: we remember what we process. Reading alone produces familiarity. Reading and writing produces understanding. The act of translating what you’ve read into your own words is the moment learning actually happens.

There is also something profoundly personal about a Bible journal. Over time, it becomes a record of your journey with God through Scripture — a document of the questions you asked, the truths that hit you hardest, and the ways your understanding of God has deepened and changed. Re-reading entries from months or years earlier is one of the most encouraging things a Christian can do.

What You Actually Need to Start a Bible Journal

Before we get to the steps, let’s clear up the most common misconception about Bible journalling: you do not need a special journalling Bible.

Journalling Bibles — the ones with wide illustrated margins — are beautiful tools, and if you already have one or want one, they’re wonderful. But they are not required. Plenty of the richest Bible journalling in history was done in plain notebooks by people who had never heard of wide-margin editions.

Here is everything you actually need:

• A notebook. Any notebook. A plain exercise book, a Moleskine, a spiral-bound pad. The only requirement is that it’s dedicated to this purpose — don’t share it with shopping lists.

• A pen you enjoy writing with. This matters more than it sounds. You’re more likely to show up for a practice that feels good. Find a pen that writes well and keep it with your journal.

• Your Bible. Any readable translation. The NIV, ESV, and CSB all work well for journalling. If you’re not sure which to use, start with whichever one you already have.

• A consistent time and place. Your environment shapes your habits. A regular spot — the kitchen table before the house wakes up, a chair by the window, a corner of your office — trains your brain to settle into reflective mode faster.

How to Start a Bible Journal: 6 Simple Steps

These six steps will take you from a blank page to a sustainable journalling practice. Follow them in order the first time, then adapt them as you discover what works best for you.

Step 1: Choose a Passage — Not a Chapter

The first mistake most new Bible journallers make is trying to journal a whole chapter. Don’t. A chapter is too much to engage with deeply in a single session.

Instead, choose a short passage — a paragraph, a few verses, or even a single verse that stood out to you as you read. The goal is depth, not coverage.

If you’re not sure where to begin, here are some excellent starting passages for Bible journalling:

• Psalm 23 — six verses that have sustained believers through every kind of season.

• Philippians 4:4–9 — Paul’s instruction on peace, contentment, and right thinking.

• John 1:1–14 — one of the most theologically dense and beautiful passages in all of Scripture.

• Romans 8:31–39 — Paul’s declaration of the unbreakable love of God.

Step 2: Read the Passage Slowly — At Least Twice

Before you write a single word, read the passage at least twice. The first reading gives you the overall shape. The second reading is where you begin to notice things you missed the first time.

Read slowly. Read out loud if you can — hearing the words as well as seeing them engages a different part of your brain and often surfaces details that silent reading misses.

As you read, notice what stands out. What word or phrase keeps catching your attention? What surprises you? What do you not fully understand? What moves you? These are the threads worth pulling.

Step 3: Write What You Notice

Open your journal and begin with observation. This is the most important discipline in Bible journalling — and the one most people skip in their rush to get to application.

Write down what you actually see in the text, not what you think it should say or what you remember being told it means. Some questions to guide your observation:

• What are the facts? Who is speaking? Who are they speaking to? What happens?

• What words or phrases stand out? Are there repeated words? Surprising descriptions? Unusual images?

• What do you not understand? Write your questions. Questions are the engine of deeper study.

• What does this reveal about God? His character, his actions, his heart toward people?

Step 4: Write What It Means

Now move from observation to interpretation. What does this passage mean? This is where context becomes important.

Every passage in Scripture was written by a specific person to a specific audience at a specific moment in history. Its meaning doesn’t change — but your understanding of its meaning deepens when you know the context in which it was written.

A few questions to guide your interpretation:

• What would this have meant to the original audience? Were they in exile? Under persecution? Newly converted? Rich or poor?

• What is the main point of this passage? If you had to summarise it in one sentence, what would you say?

• How does this fit into the bigger picture? Where does this passage sit in the book as a whole? How does it connect to the rest of Scripture?

Step 5: Write Your Response — One Specific Application

This is where Bible journalling becomes genuinely transformative. Not when you understand the passage intellectually — but when you let it speak into your actual life.

The temptation here is to write something vague. “I should trust God more.” “I need to pray harder.” These are not applications — they’re impressions. An application is specific.

Ask yourself:

• What does this passage ask me to believe? Is there a truth here I’m not fully trusting?

• What does this passage ask me to do? Is there a specific action it calls me to — today, this week?

• What does this passage ask me to stop? Is there a thought pattern, habit, or attitude this passage challenges?

Write one specific, honest response. One is enough. One, taken seriously, is worth more than ten vague resolutions.

Step 6: End With Prayer

Close every journal entry with a short prayer — written or spoken. This single habit transforms Bible study into conversation.

You’re not just studying a text. You’re engaging with the God who inspired it. Ending in prayer acknowledges that — and keeps your journalling from becoming merely intellectual.

Your prayer can be three sentences. It can be a single line. It can be a question directed at God. It doesn’t have to be polished or eloquent. What matters is that it’s honest — and that it closes the loop between what you’ve read and the God you’re reading it to know better.

What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Write

Every regular Bible journaller hits sessions where the words won’t come. The passage feels flat, nothing stands out, and the blank page stares back at you.

Here’s what to do:

• Copy the passage out by hand. Writing the text itself slows you down and often surfaces something you’d missed in reading. This is an ancient practice — monks copied Scripture by hand for exactly this reason.

• Write your confusion. “I don’t understand this passage” is a legitimate journal entry. Write what confuses you and why. Often the act of articulating the confusion begins to resolve it.

• Write a question to God. Sometimes the most honest response to a passage is a question rather than a reflection. That’s fine. God is not threatened by your questions.

• Start smaller. If a paragraph feels too much, choose a single verse. If a verse feels too much, choose a phrase. There is no minimum length for a Bible journal entry.

The One Rule That Keeps Your Journal Going

The most common reason Bible journals are abandoned is not lack of desire. It’s the accumulation of missed days turning into guilt, and guilt turning into avoidance.

Here is the one rule that prevents this: never miss twice.

When you miss a day — and you will — don’t catch up. Don’t try to write two entries tomorrow to compensate. Just return to where you were and keep going. Missing one day is human. Missing two starts to feel like a pattern. Don’t let it become one.

Also: resist the temptation to aim for perfect entries. Your journal is not a performance. It’s a practice. Messy, honest, and consistent beats polished and occasional every single time.

The Habit That Makes It All Worth It: Looking Back

Once a month, set aside fifteen minutes to re-read your recent entries.

You will be surprised by what you find. Questions you wrote months ago that have since been answered. Struggles you recorded that have since been resolved. Truths you noted that have become foundational to how you think. Prayers that have since been answered in ways you hadn’t anticipated.

Re-reading your journal is one of the most encouraging spiritual practices available to a Christian. It reveals God’s faithfulness across seasons in a way that memory alone never can. You see not just where you are — but how far you’ve come.

Going Deeper: When You’re Ready for More

Once you have a basic journalling practice established, here are a few ways to deepen it:

• Thematic journalling. Choose a theme — fear, faith, prayer, the Holy Spirit — and spend a season tracking every passage you encounter on that theme across your regular reading.

• Character study journalling. Follow a single biblical figure — Paul, David, Mary, Daniel — through every passage that mentions them and journal what their life reveals about faith, failure, and God’s faithfulness.

• Book study journalling. Work through one book of the Bible systematically, journalling every passage in order. This is the most rewarding kind of journalling for long-term depth — and pairs perfectly with our guide to how to study the Bible on your own.

• Prayer journalling. Expand the prayer component of each entry into a fuller conversation with God — including specific requests, Scripture you’re praying back to him, and space to record what you sense he’s saying in response.

Your Journal Starts With a Single Entry

You don’t need the perfect notebook, the perfect Bible, or the perfect morning routine. You need a passage, a pen, and a willingness to show up.

Choose a passage today. Read it twice. Write what you notice. Write what it means. Write one honest response. End with a prayer.

That’s your first entry. And the second one will be easier than the first — and the hundredth will be something you can’t imagine giving up.

If you’d like to go deeper into some of Scripture’s most fascinating and least-taught texts, →sign up for the Write Minded Books newsletter and receive the free Book of Enoch guide — 7 Things Your Church Never Told You — straight to your inbox. It’s the perfect companion to a deepening Bible journalling practice.