Resources and Ideas for Your Spiritual Journey

re-source • noun: a source of supply or support

On your journey to spiritual wholeness, you might find the following resources helpful. Everyone learns differently, so I have tried to include a wide variety of methods and resources. If something doesn’t work for you—give up on the method, not the commitment! I love the idea of Bible art journaling, but after trying it a few times, I decided that it stressed me out. I prefer to just journal in my Bible instead.

To feed my artistic side, I enjoy creating Instagram posts with encouraging Bible verses combined with photographs that I’ve taken. My Instagram name is blestbutstrest, if you’d like to see how I do Bible art journaling.

(I am NOT an affiliate for any of the blog links—just wanting to spread the love and offer resources to my readers. I AM an Amazon associate—which means that if you happen to click on one of the Amazon links and purchase something, I’ll make a small commission—which will help support my blogging habit).

Free to Low-Cost Bible Study Guides

Some of my blogging friends offer free Bible studies. For most of these, you’ll need to subscribe to the blog to receive the resource.

Michelle Morehead Diercks has a monthly guided Bible reading that she offers on her blog.

Sarah E. Frazier offers a free “Five Steps to Start Your Bible Study Habit” series on her blog.

Sara Borgstede at The Holy Mess offers a guide to Bible journaling. She also has a 30 Day Victory in Christ Bible Reading Plan.

If you  look around Carly Thomson‘s site, you’ll find several free devotionals for both adults and tween girls.

RedefineHer has low-cost Bible Study resources that combine video with journaling.

Caroline Saunders offers a short study called Laughing Faith (this sounds right up my ally!).

Books on How to Study the Bible

Bible Study Methods by Rick Warren is a great place to start. It outlines 12 different methods of studying the Bible—hopefully, one of them will resonate with you.

Kay Arthur has a good book as well, Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days.

Kay Arthur also co-authors a book titled How to Study Your Bible: Discover the Life-Changing Approach to God’s Word.

Online Bibles and Apps

I use the YouVersion Bible app on my smartphone on a daily basis. I recently discovered the Blue Letter Bible, but haven’t used it much yet.

And of course, I can’t survive without BibleGateway—I love how I can pull up parallel translations to help me understand passages better. You can also do keyword searches which I find really helpful. Mostly because I love words more than numbers, and I often forget WHERE to find that Bible verse I memorized years ago.

Bibles

I confess that I have an extensive Bible collection. When I moonlighted at a popular Christian bookstore for five years, every time a Bible I loved went on sale, I used my employee discount to purchase it. I may have eight or nine different Bibles. Genuine leather binding makes me happy. I love the way it smells and feels in my hands. I also love the practicality of the waterproof camper’s Bible, too! For those who want to journal directly in the Bible, manufacturers have produced journaling Bibles with very wide margins in a variety of translations.

Publishers produce three basic types of Bibles: straight text Bibles, devotional Bibles, and study Bibles. Plain text Bibles may have cross-references and short footnotes—my journaling Bible looks like this.

A devotional Bible has short devotions written by pastors, bloggers, or theologians interspersed throughout the Bible text. The devotions usually target a specific audience. I have a cherished women’s devotional Bible. You can also find Bibles with devotional thoughts for men, children, teenagers, young adults, firefighters, marines, soldiers, nurses, EMS workers, caregivers, and police officers.

A study Bible has extended footnotes and commentary to help the reader understand the Biblical context of a passage. The Scofield Study Bible has been around since the early 1900s (I first read about it in books by Grace Livingston Hill). I also have a copy of the Archeological Study Bible—it comes with extensive notes about the archeology and history of the area where the Bible action takes place.

Nurture Yourself Takeaway #30—There’s no time like the present to start studying your Bible. Find a method or resource that meets your needs.

If you have a favorite resource, feel free to share it in the comments! Make sure you let us know why you find it meaningful.