January 8, 2018 | Sincerely, Sapphire

(Note: this can be found on a permanent page here as well, for future reference!)

What is a “War Binder”? That question gets asked probably every day (often more than once) in our “Christian Planner, Journal, and Craft Fellowship” group on Facebook. I decided I would creating a page on my blog to help answer that question! We can just direct them to this page and they can find out here and also get some resources for starting their own war binder.

First things first, ok:

What IS a war binder??

A war binder is a take-off from the movie, War Room. You can watch a trailer for the movie here:

So in this movie, Miss Clara has a big house and in her house she has a big closet she has emptied all but a chair. She calls this her, “war room”. Why “war room”? Miss Clara is a devoted Christian who spends a lot of time in this room waging spiritual war in prayer. She tapes prayer requests, pictures, etc. on the walls of her little room and she is there with her chair, her Bible and her taped-up requests. It’s just a tiny little room, but the realms of the heaven know it quite well. Miss Clara regularly wages war with the Holy Spirit encompassing her, the Word of God as her weapon and the blood of Jesus as her covering.

The Bible tells us that as believers in Jesus Christ, we are in a war!

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” –Ephesians 6:12

“For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfareare not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We tear down arguments, and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.…” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Eph. 6:11-17

A War Binder is a “war room” in a binder for those of us without an extra room to convert into a war “room”.

It’s a notebook, binder, traveler’s notebook, journal; what have you that you keep prayer requests in. You can have a section for prayer requests, answered prayers, devotion and sermon notes, Bible study notes, gratitude, reflections on what you’ve studied, worship lyrics, scripture writing, ANYTHING that draws you close to the Lord and which you use to wage your own spiritual war in.

A war binder is a very personal thing you share between yourself and God. Make it as you are inspired. the bottom line is it draws you close to the Lord in prayer and let His Word guide you in your daily walk through what inspires you to enter into it.

Here is a clip from my first war binder. (First only because I was a bit too ambitious and made it too big to turn the pages easily 🙂 ) But I’m using the same concept on a bit smaller scale now. I hope it will give you some ideas:

Use your own ideas! Let the Holy Spirit lead you 🙂 He is faithful!

Recommended Supplies:

(Some of these are affiliate links and if a link leads to a purchase, I will get a small commission which will help me maintain this blog. I won’t post a link to a product I don’t support myself.)

Other sources for some great leather traveler’s notebooks:

Chic Sparrow MeadowGate FoxyFix

Or any ring-bound notebook 🙂

Check out my Pinterest board HERE for a LOT more ideas!

I’d love to see what you come up with! Tell me about it in the comments below!

Welcome to 2018! A new year with new possibilities. I hope that you, like me, are determined to move forward in your faith and put everything that’s happened to you behind you (as much as possible at any rate) follow the apostle Paul’s example in Philippians chapter 3:13b-15:

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.…”

It takes a lot of faith to leave our pain and struggles behind us and look to the future. Looking to the future means we have faith that there are better things in that future. Even better, that there is some ONE in the future to guide us through it and to receive us there. I read a devotional this past week in my YouVersion devotional by Ryan Stevenson that speaks to this and I wanted to share it with you, my readers:

Living by Faith
The Christian life is all about FAITH. Hebrews 11 says, “faith is being sure of what we hope for, and knowing something is real even if we do not see it.” I love this verse because it always brings me comfort when I am in the midst of a season where I’m finding it difficult to hold on. When God has called us to do something, we must believe and act on it. I believe that God delights in those who will follow the call He’s placed in the heart, and risk the comfort of everyday life for the Kingdom’s sake.

The easiest thing for us to do is doubt. As an emotionally driven people, we often find ourselves in peaks and valleys, caught between hope and despair. It seems as if the journey of life is a constant rollercoaster of highs and lows. It seems that even when we want to move forward with confidence, our flesh continuously wants to resort to the comfort of what we can see, feel, and physically grasp. This can be extremely frustrating because we want to see results and the fruits of our labor quickly.

Are you in a season right now where you feel like nothing exciting is happening for you? Are you feeling alone, hopeless, or discouraged? I have been there and know the feeling! Let me offer you the hope that keeps me going. Jeremiah 29:11 states, “I know the plans that I have for you…plans to prosper you…to give you a future and a hope.” If you are feeling discouraged today and are having a hard time believing, just know that God is closer to you than you know.

He is using this season right now to stretch, bend, purify, and refine you into a warrior for the Kingdom. Like grapes that get crushed and pressed and eventually turn into beautiful wine, so our character and faith after the Lord puts us through His refining process. This may require some crushing, pressing, filtering out the junk, and even sitting for a while to mature, but in due season, it’s our time to be released! God has a plan for you, and it’s probably just around the corner! BELIEVE IT!

—by Ryan Stevenson, “Trusting God in the Eye of the Storm”

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”–
James 2:17 ESV

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. .. (read the whole passage HERE)” –Hebrews 11:1‭-‬40 ESV