Hello Hello! After having a few days off this week from Homeschool we are trying to get back into the swing of things.

Today I wanted to share some Habits you can add into your daily routine to ensure you are growing each day in your walk with Jesus. Each and every one of us are walking our own Journey with Christ – none of our walks look the same and we are all at different maturity levels in our faith but as Christians regardless of where you are right now in your walk- we should be striving for growth.

The definition of Growth is a stage or condition in increasing, developing or maturing.

As followers of Jesus we want to increase our knowledge, develop the fruit that is grown from a Righteous life and mature in our knowledge and understanding of the Bible. We also want to increase, develop and mature in our Faith and Prayer life.

Here are a few verses about spiritual growth:

Hebrews 6:1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity.

Colossians 1:9…..Let God fill you with knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in everyway; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. 

Colossians  2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child , I talked like a child, I thought like a child but when I became a man I put the ways of childhood behind me. 

2 Peter 1:5-8 Make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self control, and to self control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness and to godliness, mutual affection and to mutual affection, love for if you possess these qualities in increasing measure they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I love that last verse in Peter – If we are not making every effort to ADD to our faith then we will become ineffective and unproductive. That is exactly what the enemy wants – a bunch of ineffective and unproductive believers walking around doing absolutely nothing. Ineffective and unproductive in doing everything Jesus told his disciples during the Great Commission (Mark 16:17) and going about without any rival devouring families, tearing apart marriages, destroying nations and actively sowing false teachings into the Bride of Christ (the Church). I think we can all agree that there are ALOT of people walking around calling themselves Christians that do not have any fruit to show for that claim. They live their lives to please their self looking for the world to pat them on the back for a job well done. I do NOT want to be one of those people but I have also been one.

In order to do what Jesus has called us as believers to do we need to make sure that our daily lives are submitted to him and we are seeking daily to deepen and widen our relationship with Christ.

Here are some Daily Habits that I practice to ensure I am growing:

1. Reading the Bible. I love doing Bible studies, reading commentaries and theology books and I think those are so important but getting the Word Firsthand and praying for revelation is essential. Sometimes God wants to reveal things directly to you through his Word not secondhand by what someone else said that God said. Wisdom is Power and lets not forget that even the enemy knows and quotes Scripture. (Matthew: 1-11)
2. Prayer. Confessing the Sin that separates us from God. Taking our problems, hurts, joys, needs, concerns and everything in between to him. I love how God gave us the ability to pray wherever we are, whatever our circumstances are and even though he already knows every aspect of our lives- he cannot wait to hear from us! Its import to ask God to expose areas in our life we need to work on, remove people that are not sent by him and circumstances we are not meant to be in. The Holy Spirit will convict you of those things and we can specifically ask God for that conviction. He also gave us the power to wage war, break generation strongholds, cast out demons, sever soul ties,  break the chains of addiction, bring healing to the sick and defeat the enemy through the name of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 16:19) “Whatever is bound of earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatever is loosed on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven”. Our Prayer life should make the enemy tremble and flee!
3. Guarding what you come into agreement with. The music we listen to, shows/movies we watch, books we read, advice we take, things we seek affirmation or knowledge by and friendships we have can all lead us closer to God or father away. God has given us free will to choose how we will live our lives. The enemy can easily hide himself away as “light” but its a false light that many are deceived by. When we ask the Holy Spirit for conviction and revelation in these areas -he will do it. There are things that I used to participate in that God firmly told me not to mess with any longer.  To be a Christ follower means to seek first the Kingdom not seek first what everyone else is doing, not what’s popular and trending, or what other Christians are participating in but His Kingdom and Will first and foremost.
4. Go to Church and Listen to sound Biblical teachings online. There are a few Pastors that I love to listen to on YouTube. One of the benefits to the virus was that so many great Churches now have live streaming. Just pray for discernment as the Lord did tell us that there are many wolves disguised as sheep.

Those are just a few things that I practice in my daily life to ensure that I am growing deeper and wider on this Earth Journey with Jesus. I am so far from perfect but God has taken my story of brokenness and despair and has truly redeemed, healed and restored me!! I have tasted living water and nothing else will ever do!

We choose each day who we will serve and sometimes we just need to pause, self reflect and really ask ourselves who are we serving today? What does our daily habits tell us about ourselves and what’s most important to us. How do my choices lead me closer to Jesus and what can I do daily to get me to where I want to be.

The story of Mary and Martha just came to Mind. Do you know that story? You can read it in Luke 10:38-42. I find it freeing really.. Jesus was only there for a short time and Mary choose her time with him wisely.

May we go throughout our days being more like Mary and less like Martha.

Ali