Walking with Christ can be much like my 1-year-old learning to walk. You kinda don’t know what to do and you’re barely able to balance it all but God will be there every step of the way.
Here are 3 ways to grow in intimacy with Christ.
When I first started spending time with God, I didn’t know what to do. While I’m the queen of “I don’t have enough time”, Something I found helpful was to start with 5-5-5.
5 min of worship. Worship Matters. Worship matters to God. Worship matters to you. True worship is based on the desire to honor God. You can pick your favorite song or playlist on youtube or Spotify. Whatever you do-pick something that is personal to you. Worship is a lifestyle so picking something that works for someone else won’t be authentic and won’t have any meaning behind it.
5 min of prayer. This also means spending time listening. I use the ACTS acronym but between each letter, I pause to give God the freedom to speak to me.
Adoration. Give God praise and honor for who he is as Lord overall. Who has God been to you? Make it personal. Here are 30 names to get you started.
Confession. Honestly deal with the sin in your prayer life. Ask God to show you where you have broken his heart.
Thankfulness. Verbalize what you’re grateful for in your life and in the world around you.
Supplications. Pray for the needs of others and yourself. (In that order)
If you’re anything like me I had no idea what the heck I was supposed to be listening for but as time has gone by the pausing (moments of silence) during prayer had gotten less awkward and I have adopted the posture of expecting to hear.
5 min of reading the bible. One of the most effective ways to understand God’s plan for our life and gain His perspective and wisdom is to study His word each day. Start out with 5 min and see what happens. Someone once told me that the bible stood for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I could remember thinking that it’s not that basic! Loving thy neighbor over myself isn’t basic (easy) for me. Loving someone based on how God loves them isn’t basic (easy) for me. Not saying any and everything that comes to my mind isn’t basic (easy) for me. None of that comes as 1st nature. God has left us with the instruction manual for life. Though all of those things don’t come easy to me, I can rest in knowing that I’m still loved and I get to work on it every day I wake up.
Jesus teaches us in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for His righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
I like to start with worship but once you keep up the practice you’ll learn what works best for your personal time with God and you will long for more than 15 min.
What adjustments do you need to make to walk closer with Christ today?