From Worry to Worship - Guided Journaling Session (Nurture Note 012)

Welcome to this week's Nurture Note. Prefer to watch/listen as opposed to reading this week's note? click below for the YouTube link. 📹 To get them directly to your inbox, fill in the form below this post. ⬇️

Today’s Nurture Note is going to take a bit of a practical turn due to the nature of what I’m focusing on within the passage.

Luke 12:22-34 contains words which, when I first heard them, stopped me in my tracks.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.” (Luke 12:22)

‘Don’t worry’ can seem like such a throwaway statement at times, can’t it? And so what was it doing here in the Bible? I wondered to myself all those years ago.

After going through the journey I have with my work, which includes, as some of you will know, God speaking to me shortly after I was commissioned to write my first book based on the theme of wellbeing - and stalling, living in the reality of what Jesus told his disciples here has become part of my daily practice.

During the aforementioned conversation with God, he said to me ‘Your wellbeing has so much more to do with your source than your circumstances.’ And ever since then, those words have been a constant reminder of what Luke 12 is saying.

The thing is, platitudes like ‘don’t worry’ can be very well understood in theory, but unless we begin to live out what it means to cast our care on Jesus, we can still find ourselves in the same thought spirals for days, weeks, years and even decades if we’re not careful.

So today, I’m going to walk you through the passage by doing some guided journaling. In a week’s time, this video will only be available privately behind an email sign up, and so I’d suggest that if you’re feeling at all anxious, you carve out 30-minutes in your calendar this week where you can go through it with me. If you’ve got that time now - let’s do it!

All you need is your Bible, your favourite notebook and a pen, and here’s how our 30-minutes will be shaped:

Theme: Facing Worry with God’s Care (Luke 12:22-31)

• Opening Scripture (2-minutes): From Luke 12

• Journaling Block 1 (10–12 mins): Naming the Worry

You’ll have journal prompts and scipture on the screen to help you think about these worries so you can get them out of your head and onto paper.

• Journaling Block 2 (10–12 mins): God’s Remedy for Worry

You’ll have journal prompts and scripture on the screen to help you call to mind and make note of God’s faithfulness in such a way that you can begin to release worries back to him once again.

• Closing prayer (2-minutes)

Here’s the video again:

If you enjoyed this more practical Nurture Note, I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a reply to this email or comment over on the YouTube video (don’t forget to subscribe to my channel while you’re there please!)

In today’s Nurture Note, we’ve focused on naming our worries and remembering God’s provision. This week inside my guided journaling community The Flourishing, we’ll continue with the rest of the passage - exploring what it looks like to seek God’s kingdom first and to live in persistent, expectant trust. If you’re already a member, you’ll have access to that live session on Wednesday where we’ll be journaling together just as we did last week - zoom link will be with you tomorrow.

If you’re not yet a member, now’s the time to join us, especially if you enjoyed today’s Nurture Note - you get something like this weekly in The Flourishing, as well as an extended version at the start of each month, and a supportive, faith-filled community to journal alongside. The founder’s rate is open until Tuesday, September 16th at midnight, and then the price will be increasing as our library of guided sessions continues to grow. Become a founder and continue the guided journaling you started with me today HERE.

Keep going, keep growing.

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