5 reasons why I prefer Bible journaling on my iPad rather than my physical Bible

If you are a Christian who owns an iPad or a tablet, you must try digital Bible journaling at least once in your life.

If you didn’t know, you can replicate the experience of Bible journaling with your iPad/tablet and stylus using a digital journaling Bible. This is an interactive PDF Bible that you import to a note-taking app like GoodNotes, Collanote, Penly, etc. With your stylus, you can write, draw, and highlight just like you would with pens, colored pencils, and highlighters. You can also add stickers and images just like you would on a physical journaling Bible.

Basically, digital Bible journaling combines the spiritual benefits and hand-drawn creativity of traditional Bible journaling with the convenience and flexibility of your device and note-taking app.

In this post, I want to share with you five reasons why I prefer digital Bible journaling over physical Bible journaling.

Reason #1: No journaling supplies needed

I love digital Bible journaling because it requires no supplies at all, which saves you a ton of money and drawer space.

You do not need to buy packs of highlighters, colored pencils, erasers, brush pens, or any art supplies. All of that is replaced by your stylus! You do not even need to buy a designated bag to store all of those supplies because your stylus just snaps to your device.

This makes digital Bible journaling highly portable.

You can journal anywhere, anytime, without needing to carry all your Bible and journaling supplies with you.

Want to Bible journal on a bench at the park? With digital Bible journaling, no problem. You can comfortably sit with your iPad on your lap, stylus in hand, and spend time in the Word of God. Whether you’re on a bench, on the couch, in your bed, or on a flight, your digital Bible journaling tool is always within easy reach.

With a physical Bible and journaling supplies, it’s a different story. Traditional Bible journaling restricts you to a desk where you have to have your Bible and all your supplies lying flat on the table. And depending on how many supplies you like to use, you may need a bigger desk. Traditional Bible journaling is not meant to be done on a couch or in bed. After all, no one wants to risk losing their colored pencils between the couch cushions or staining their bedsheets with acrylic paint.

This brings us to the second reason why I believe digital Bible journaling is great.

Reason #2: No risk of messing up your Bible

Digital Bible journaling is very forgiving for people who are a bit messy – like me!

When you go digital, the back button becomes your best friend.

If you make any mistakes – a misspelled word, make a crooked line, or decide you don’t like a sticker you just pasted – NO WORRIES! With digital Bible journaling, nothing is set in stone. You can easily undo any mistakes with a tap. You do not have this luxury with traditional Bible journaling. If you mess up a drawing or bleed ink through your page in a physical Bible, you and your Bible will have to live with that.

With traditional Bible journaling, you also run the risk of tearing the page of your Bible.

Even worse, physical Bibles typically have thin, delicate pages that are often semi-transparent. While they are designed to handle standard highlighters and pens, they aren’t really meant for heavy inks, markers, or paints. With a physical Bible, you always run the risk of bleed-through or accidentally tearing a page of your Bible.

With digital Bible journaling, there is zero risk of bleed-through or torn pages.

Reason #3: Easy organization

The Word of God is so rich and layered that you can unearth so much treasure from a single verse.

Because of this, it’s common to run out of space in the margin when taking notes or Bible journaling in a physical Bible.

To fix this issue, people often paste extra papers and sticky notes into their margins just to get some extra room near the relevant passage. While this might work as a quick fix, it makes revisiting the passage later more difficult; the more papers and sticky notes are added, the more cluttered the page becomes, and the harder the text is to read.

While the extra papers are a testament to countless hours spent in Scripture, they can make revisiting the text a bit of a puzzle later on as layers cover up the pages.

Some people do not mind this, but others prefer their Bible and notes to look a bit tidier.

If you fall into the second category, digital Bible journaling is an absolute game-changer.

You get all the extra space you could ever need without a single ounce of clutter. With digital Bible journaling, you can duplicate pages as many times as you want and create internal hyperlinks to jump from one passage to another. This makes cross-referencing easy and keeps your Bible, notes, and journaling more organized.

I love taking notes with my digital Bible, so when I run out of space in the margin, here is what I do:

• For in-depth studies: I link a specific passage to another page where I can expand on my thoughts and study notes.
• For quick insights: I use the comment option in Goodnotes to keep it tucked away neatly. Whenever I want to read it, I just tap on the speech bubble icon to reveal the comment.

This keeps the biblical text and my notes organized, clear, and easy to revisit.

Reason #4: Reusable Bible and stickers

With a physical Bible, once you’ve filled up the margins, you have to buy a new Bible.

With digital Bible journaling, all you have to do is reupload your digital Bible into your note-taking app again, and voila, you have a blank, brand new Bible. It’s the same for stickers. You can duplicate your stickers and use them as many times as you want.

If you already own an iPad or a tablet, digital Bible journaling is hassle-free and saves you more money in the long run.

Reason #5: It’s free to try

With reasons 1 through 4, you may want to try digital Bible journaling for yourself, but you do not want to invest your hard-earned money in something new to you.

Well, you don’t have to take my word for it or buy anything to find out if you are the kind of person who would benefit from digital Bible journaling.

Join or free membership below, and we’ll send you a link to download a FREE digital journaling Bible on the four Gospels straight to your inbox.

You can import this digital Bible into Collanote or Samsung Notes, which are two fantastic free note-taking apps for iOS and Android. You can also try Goodnotes, since they allow you to use the app for free as long as you import a PDF that is less than 5MB in size.

Try it out, spend some time in the Word, and see for yourself if digital Bible journaling is right for your Bible journaling and Bible study style.