Abiding Time & S.O.A.P. Journaling
Read through John 15:1-8 together.
Jesus uses a gardening metaphor to describe his relationship with his followers.
- What does Jesus compare himself to?
- What does Jesus compare his followers to?
In plant terms, what is the relationship between the vine and the branches?
The vine gives life and sustenance to the branches
How does that correlate to our spiritual lives?
All living things need continual nourishment to survive. What happens to our physical bodies when we don’t eat or drink?
The same can be said for our spiritual selves. When we don’t have spiritual nourishment, that part of who we are shrivels up. To be alive and growing we need to feed and water our spirits. That happens by spending time with Jesus.
Verse 4 says “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” Another word that could be used for “remain” is abide. What does abide mean?
To spend time with. Literally to dwell with or make a home with.
When we abide with Jesus—spend time with him, make our home with him—He abides with us. His abiding gives us life.
How do you abide with Jesus? 3 components that can be a part of abiding time. Prayer, Worship, Bible.
We believe that the Bible is true, is relevant for today and that God still speaks to us through it. We want to give you a tool to help you study the Bible for yourself. It’s good and beneficial for us to look at God’s word together and we will do that almost every week in Core Group. But It’s also good for you to know how to do that on your own. To use another metaphor—it’s good for you to know how to feed yourself.
A tool that has been very useful for us to not just read the Bible but consider it and apply it has been the SOAP journaling method.
SOAP is an acronym:
S – Scripture
O – Observation
A – Application
P – Prayer
We’re going to practice a SOAP journal so you can see how it’s done and you are able to do it on your own.
This is a tool for you to use in your personal abiding time with Jesus. Each week as a part of one on ones, we’ll share what God has been speaking to us through our abiding time and SOAP journal in the previous week. We don’t want you to be surprised when we ask that, but we also want to help you learn how to feed yourselves and take Jesus up on his promise that He will abide with you when you abide with Him.
Journaling may be new to you, or it may be something that you’ve dismissed in the past. We’ve found that journaling serves 2 important purposes. First, writing things down engages different areas of your brain than when you just read or just speak. So you process what you’re doing differently—which God can use to speak to you—and you tend to better remember things you’ve written down. Remembering also ties into the 2nd purpose. How many of you have read something in the Bible in the morning and then forgotten it by mid-afternoon? Taking the time to journal leaves a record for you to go back and look at later that day, or before your next core group to remember what you saw in scripture, how you were going to obey God through your actions & what you may want to share with someone else.
Jesus uses a gardening metaphor to describe his relationship with his followers.
- What does Jesus compare himself to?
- What does Jesus compare his followers to?
In plant terms, what is the relationship between the vine and the branches?
The vine gives life and sustenance to the branches
How does that correlate to our spiritual lives?
All living things need continual nourishment to survive. What happens to our physical bodies when we don’t eat or drink?
The same can be said for our spiritual selves. When we don’t have spiritual nourishment, that part of who we are shrivels up. To be alive and growing we need to feed and water our spirits. That happens by spending time with Jesus.
Verse 4 says “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” Another word that could be used for “remain” is abide. What does abide mean?
To spend time with. Literally to dwell with or make a home with.
When we abide with Jesus—spend time with him, make our home with him—He abides with us. His abiding gives us life.
How do you abide with Jesus? 3 components that can be a part of abiding time. Prayer, Worship, Bible.
- Prayer – conversation with God
- Worship – giving worship to God for who He is and what He has done
- Bible – receiving encouragement and instruction from God
We believe that the Bible is true, is relevant for today and that God still speaks to us through it. We want to give you a tool to help you study the Bible for yourself. It’s good and beneficial for us to look at God’s word together and we will do that almost every week in Core Group. But It’s also good for you to know how to do that on your own. To use another metaphor—it’s good for you to know how to feed yourself.
A tool that has been very useful for us to not just read the Bible but consider it and apply it has been the SOAP journaling method.
SOAP is an acronym:
S – Scripture
O – Observation
A – Application
P – Prayer
We’re going to practice a SOAP journal so you can see how it’s done and you are able to do it on your own.
- Using a chapter of a New Testament book, read through the scripture together. Be on the lookout for anything that jumps out to you.
- After reading the chapter, each of you share one verse that stood out to you. This is their “S”
- “O” – Share any observations about the scripture they chose. What in the context of the chapter gives them information about what is being said? Give a couple of minutes to write these down.
- “A”—How does this Scripture apply to your lives? What action step will you take because of what you read (be specific). In other words, how will you obey Jesus this week? Give time for them to answer and then write it down.
- “P”—A short prayer to God about what they learned and are going to apply.
This is a tool for you to use in your personal abiding time with Jesus. Each week as a part of one on ones, we’ll share what God has been speaking to us through our abiding time and SOAP journal in the previous week. We don’t want you to be surprised when we ask that, but we also want to help you learn how to feed yourselves and take Jesus up on his promise that He will abide with you when you abide with Him.
Journaling may be new to you, or it may be something that you’ve dismissed in the past. We’ve found that journaling serves 2 important purposes. First, writing things down engages different areas of your brain than when you just read or just speak. So you process what you’re doing differently—which God can use to speak to you—and you tend to better remember things you’ve written down. Remembering also ties into the 2nd purpose. How many of you have read something in the Bible in the morning and then forgotten it by mid-afternoon? Taking the time to journal leaves a record for you to go back and look at later that day, or before your next core group to remember what you saw in scripture, how you were going to obey God through your actions & what you may want to share with someone else.