How’s your Christian spiritual life? Are you bored with it? Do you feel a little far from the Lord at this very moment? If you are, then this post is definitely for you. It is about improving your spiritual life growth. This is about going back to God from back sliding.Today we will be discussing the importance of praying, worshipping, reading the Bible, submitting to the authorities, writing, and meditating.

Develop the Habit of Praying

Almost all Christians pray, but only few do it right. We have to remember that praying is communicating with God. Unfortunately, there are more people who prays without communicating to God. They pray by memorization, they pray without thinking, they pray but not coming from the heart, and they pray out of obligation.

Praying is first of all giving our concerns to God. We tell Him our concerns. We give Him our needs and wants. All we need to do is to knock, seek, and call on the Lord.

Secondly, praying is listening. It is listening to what God wants. We ask yes, but what is His will for us? It is not just about giving our concerns which is more like an egoistic character of humanity. Have you ever listened to God? Sometimes, we are very good in asking what we need and want, but we are very poor in listening to God.

Third, praying is trusting God. We pray because we trust God that He answers. We pray because we believe that God can give everything as long as He wills it. We pray because we know that there is nothing impossible with God.

However, it doesn’t mean that God can provide everything He can now be our cash machine. Many people consider God as a cash machine. They thought that when they ask God, He will automatically provide for that need. But this is not actually the case. God sees what we do, and we cannot mock Him. God wants our trust and not the material desires of our hearts.

Do you have the habit of right prayer? When was the last time you prayed right?

Develop the Habit of Worship

It was said that Christianity is declining fast. And yes, it is true that people doesn’t want to go to church anymore. And to those who goes to church, they tend to get bored inside the church. But why? It is because many of them hasn’t developed the habit of worship.

Worshipping God does not only happen inside the church. It starts with your inner being, then to your home, to your work and then to the church. If we have the habit of worshipping God, we apply what the Bible says, “Everything you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

In contrast to this, our human nature will always want us to go back to where we came from. It will always desire worldly things. And this means that we need to be more careful in the the way we live.

Our worldly lifestyle will always be a hindrance in our worship to God. It will always be a stumbling block of our Christian lives. It is therefore a MUST that we start learning how to worship God in spirit and in truth. Unless we learn that, our Christian lives will always be in a dragging phase.

When was the last time you worshipped God in spirit and in truth? When was the last time that you felt God is talking to you through his words as you hear the message on Sundays or read the Bible? When was the last time you felt the excitement because it is Sunday?

Develop the Habit of Reading

Of course I am referring to the reading of your Bible. When was the last time that you read your Bible? One way to measure if you are reading your Bible is when you have the habit of bringing your Bible. Sad to say that there are lots of Christians who doesn’t bring their Bible even during Sundays. And please note that it is not even the guarantee that these individuals are reading it. All the more if they can’t even bring it.

The Holy Scriptures itself keeps on reminding us that we need to meditate on it day and night. But we can’t even read it for 1 hour. This is the reason why this habit belongs to spiritual disciplines.

By human nature, we don’t like reading. And for those who love to read, many of them love to read fictions, novels, and all other kinds of books, but not the Bible. It was said that the Bible is the best selling book of all times, but there are really a few people who indulge themselves in reading and studying it.

However, if this laziness can be overcome, the rewards are just great. Peace of mind, encouragement, feeling of being loved and willingness to love and joy are just some of the rewards that you can ever get.

When was the last time that you read your Bible? When was the last time that you gave time studying it?

Develop the Habit of Writing

Not all are born writers. I know. I myself was not a born writer. But as a Christian, simple writing and journaling will really help improving our spiritual lives. Writing your experiences of God’s love is in a way building a list of reminders to us that God is there watching us.

Writing can do many things. Not only that it can edify you from time to time, it can also help other people. As for my experience, writing simply opened a whole new world for me.

It gave me an opportunity to share it to many people. My sermons for examples, not only that people in my church heard it, some people somewhere out there also heard. By simply posting it on my blog, some preachers used it as a resource of their sermon and some even preached it.

My experiences in the area of finances were also taught in many churches. Those who downloaded my ebook Blessed to Be A Blessing also shares it to other people. Thus, in a way it is like multiplying myself.

It’s a blessing when some people email you telling you that they were blessed on God’s words that you are sending them. Developing the habit of writing will surely help you and many other people in many ways.

Today, get your notebook and start writing God’s blessings that he gave you today.

Develop the Habit of Meditation

When was the last time you read your Bible with understanding? You are probably reading your Bible but just like other ordinary books, you are reading it in a passive way.

Meditation is more on reflecting the words of God and applying it in our daily lives. It is about relating our lives with those words. This habit is a little hard to do especially that our enemy is time. We are so busy for our business, for our family, for our lifestyle and what. We just “don’t” have the time to meditate. But as Christian, we need to overcome this trial.

This is why this is best done early morning where everybody are still asleep. No distractions is the key. It is just between you and God as He speaks through his words.

Meditation is basically understanding his words: “Be still and know that I am God.”

Develop the Habit of Submission

By human nature, people crave for power. Submission is always an issue to every group, even in companies, and all the more in religious sectors.

Many Christians find it hard to submit to their leaders especially when corrected. Sin can really destroy relationship between buddies in the church. If not careful, this can also destroy respect from each other.

It is therefore a must to learn the habit of submission. First is submission to God. When we understand the value of submitting to God it will not be difficult to be submitting to our leaders. Submitting to God means listening and following God’s words. It’s not about doing what we want. It is not about doing what seems nice for us. It is about doing God’s will.

Secondly, submission to our leaders is also a must to learn. God annointed our leaders to lead us in our spiritual life by his empowerment. It is God who gave our spiritual leaders to help us. And therefore, we need to show our respect to him. Disrespecting them is like disrespecting God.

But unlike to what is happening in reality. There are many people who looks at their leaders to be their plain employees. They terminate them as they love to from their “church employment”. And I believe this is one of the perversions of religious concepts of this big vast “corporate world” idea.

But let me get this straight and bold, “Our pastors are not employees, they are our spiritual leader” and we ought to submit to their leadership.

Conclusion
Still feeling lost where to start? Simply do what has been suggested in this article and be amazed on how God works in your life.