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7/9/2022
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By Jonathan Jenkins
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Perhaps you have wondered before: “How can I be a strong Christian like that man or that woman?” Then when you hear how serious they are about their faith you think to yourself, “I can never be like that! He/she is just a different person than I am!” Well, I disagree, and I think, given some practical starting points, you can also be a strong Christian man or woman! I want to give you three important habits of a strong Christian!
The first habit is connecting with and following the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. 6:19 CSB says,
“Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.”
From the moment that you are saved, the Holy Spirit of God resides in you. What an amazing truth! But the Holy Spirit is not just chilling inside of you, he is helping you fight against the sinful desires of your flesh! He wants the fruit of His Spirit to show through you. Gal. 5:22-23 says,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”
This is what the Spirit wants to produce in you! A strong Christian follows the “tug” or “drawing” of the Holy Spirit as closely as they can. If you are just starting off or have difficulty following the Holy Spirit, begin to be more alert for the Holy Spirit’s drawing, and when you feel Him tugging at you to act, use courage and act according to His will!
The second habit is praying. 1 The. 5:17 says, “pray constantly.” A strong Christian is always in prayer. Being constantly in prayer means you are always asking God for guidance and direction. It means you are always thanking him when he blesses you. You seek Him all day long through prayer. This can be quite challenging, but the smaller prayers throughout the day you do, the more natural it becomes. This helps you to always stay focused on God in all that you do. But there is also a time to pray longer prayers and more planned prayers. As I will mention in the next section, most strong Christians that you will meet say that they do a devotional in the morning where they pray and then do Bible reading. During that morning prayer is when many of them already have set prayers that they pray. For me, I have prayers that I pray every day, and then for each day of the week, I have more specific prayers. Mondays are for general prayer requests, Tuesdays are for family, Wednesdays are for my youth group, Thursdays are for personal issues I struggle with, Fridays are for national and international prayers, Saturdays are for church prayers and Sundays are for salvations of the lost. This breakdown seems to help tremendously, since there always seems to be so much to pray about! But just start praying! Even if you start off praying short, small prayers, it will help you grow into a stronger Christian.
The third habit is bible reading. 1 Tim. 3:16-17:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
The scriptures are God’s word. According to this passage, God’s word is there to teach others, to call out and correct sinful error and training us in righteousness, so that we can be made whole. Any strong Christian you talk to will always have a daily time of Bible reading. This is not a time to just read anything, but to meditate on and hear from God. My suggestion is to wake up 20 minutes earlier every morning. Begin with prayer, asking God to speak to you through His word and then read and meditate on his word. It really shapes and changes your entire day, and those changes begin to be bigger and bigger as the habit continues to grow! But do not beat yourself up if you oversleep one morning and miss your bible reading. Find time later in the day to do it, like listening on your way to work, or later in the afternoon when you get a break, or when you get home. If you miss a day (and most strong Christians are going to miss days sometimes), do not let it get you down! Try again tomorrow! As far as what you read, that is entirely up to you. But I suggest that you use the devotionals on the Bible app. I would start off with short ones (5-7 days devotionals), and then work your way towards longer ones. The Bible app will help you track your progress and can even send you reminders. Not to mention, it is all on your phone, so you can do these devotionals anywhere (even sitting on the toilet!). Reading God’s word daily is difficult to get started but is entirely worth it in the end!
These are three important habits of a daily Christian. Connecting and following the Holy Spirit, praying and reading the Bible are habits that every strong Christian has. If you are wanting to grow in your faith and grow closer to God, here are your starting points! I hope and pray that this is an encouragement to you as you begin to get closer to God! God bless!
The first habit is connecting with and following the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. 6:19 CSB says,
“Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.”
From the moment that you are saved, the Holy Spirit of God resides in you. What an amazing truth! But the Holy Spirit is not just chilling inside of you, he is helping you fight against the sinful desires of your flesh! He wants the fruit of His Spirit to show through you. Gal. 5:22-23 says,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”
This is what the Spirit wants to produce in you! A strong Christian follows the “tug” or “drawing” of the Holy Spirit as closely as they can. If you are just starting off or have difficulty following the Holy Spirit, begin to be more alert for the Holy Spirit’s drawing, and when you feel Him tugging at you to act, use courage and act according to His will!
The second habit is praying. 1 The. 5:17 says, “pray constantly.” A strong Christian is always in prayer. Being constantly in prayer means you are always asking God for guidance and direction. It means you are always thanking him when he blesses you. You seek Him all day long through prayer. This can be quite challenging, but the smaller prayers throughout the day you do, the more natural it becomes. This helps you to always stay focused on God in all that you do. But there is also a time to pray longer prayers and more planned prayers. As I will mention in the next section, most strong Christians that you will meet say that they do a devotional in the morning where they pray and then do Bible reading. During that morning prayer is when many of them already have set prayers that they pray. For me, I have prayers that I pray every day, and then for each day of the week, I have more specific prayers. Mondays are for general prayer requests, Tuesdays are for family, Wednesdays are for my youth group, Thursdays are for personal issues I struggle with, Fridays are for national and international prayers, Saturdays are for church prayers and Sundays are for salvations of the lost. This breakdown seems to help tremendously, since there always seems to be so much to pray about! But just start praying! Even if you start off praying short, small prayers, it will help you grow into a stronger Christian.
The third habit is bible reading. 1 Tim. 3:16-17:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
The scriptures are God’s word. According to this passage, God’s word is there to teach others, to call out and correct sinful error and training us in righteousness, so that we can be made whole. Any strong Christian you talk to will always have a daily time of Bible reading. This is not a time to just read anything, but to meditate on and hear from God. My suggestion is to wake up 20 minutes earlier every morning. Begin with prayer, asking God to speak to you through His word and then read and meditate on his word. It really shapes and changes your entire day, and those changes begin to be bigger and bigger as the habit continues to grow! But do not beat yourself up if you oversleep one morning and miss your bible reading. Find time later in the day to do it, like listening on your way to work, or later in the afternoon when you get a break, or when you get home. If you miss a day (and most strong Christians are going to miss days sometimes), do not let it get you down! Try again tomorrow! As far as what you read, that is entirely up to you. But I suggest that you use the devotionals on the Bible app. I would start off with short ones (5-7 days devotionals), and then work your way towards longer ones. The Bible app will help you track your progress and can even send you reminders. Not to mention, it is all on your phone, so you can do these devotionals anywhere (even sitting on the toilet!). Reading God’s word daily is difficult to get started but is entirely worth it in the end!
These are three important habits of a daily Christian. Connecting and following the Holy Spirit, praying and reading the Bible are habits that every strong Christian has. If you are wanting to grow in your faith and grow closer to God, here are your starting points! I hope and pray that this is an encouragement to you as you begin to get closer to God! God bless!