Cultivating Habits for Spiritual Growth

There’s no magical checklist that automatically guarantees spiritual growth, but we can build habits in our lives that help prepare our hearts to grow in relationship with God. 

This spring, we’ve been focusing on the idea of cultivation. Cultivate is a word that implies nurturing and growth, and over the past few weeks, we’ve been encouraging you to take a good look at the things you’re nurturing in your life. 

One of the things we hope you’re cultivating this spring is a growing relationship with God. While we don’t believe there are five steps that automatically lead to spiritual growth, we do believe that there are habits or practices we can build in our lives that prepare our hearts for spiritual growth to happen. 

Here are a few we’ve found to help us as we seek to follow Jesus. 

Read the Bible. 

It’s no secret that we believe that spending time reading, listening and meditating on God’s Word is valuable. If you want to grow as a believer, a key way to do that is by engaging with and meditating on Scripture. We’re not saying you have to get up at dawn every morning to read the Bible before the sun comes up, but there is a benefit to taking a little time each day to engage with the Bible and what it means for your life. 

Pray. 

Prayer is simply talking to God—and it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. In relationships, we rarely grow close to people we don’t talk to—and prayer is the way that we pour out our needs and worries, thank God for the way he has provided and actively seek to trust him with decisions, people and situations in our lives. It doesn’t really matter how or when you pray; it just matters that you take the time to pray each day. Maybe you have a set time that you devote to prayer each day, or perhaps you offer up smaller prayers throughout the day. Maybe you journal your prayers or pray as you take a morning or evening stroll with your dog. Your prayers don’t have to sound elegant and wordy; simply talk to God on a consistent basis so that it becomes a habit in your life, and your first line of defense in moments of stress, fear, worry or anxiety. 

Spend time with other believers. 

Understand this: if you want to grow spiritually, a lot of that growth is going to happen in community with other believers. The church is the way God has chosen to spread the gospel and disciple believers—so while personal habits do shape, form and help us learn more about God and his character, living in community with other believers is a powerful way we grow in our faith. If you’re not involved in a local church, now’s the time to re-engage. Maybe it’s time to join a small group or a Bible study. Seek to get to know a few people at your church and allow God to use these relationships with other believers to challenge, shape and form you. We’re not saying that you can’t be friends with unbelievers, but godly relationships with fellow Christians is one of the primary ways God uses to shape you more and more into Jesus’ likeness. 

Be obedient.

Again and again in Scripture (check out James 2!), obedience is lifted up as a visible proof of faith. When we are obedient to what God has commanded, when we are choose to do what he says is good and right rather than follow our own desires, we are exercising our faith and displaying to the world that we believe what God has said is true. That doesn’t mean that you won’t sin, but it does mean that you know the difference between what God says is good and what the world claims will fulfill you. We grow in faith and relationship with the Lord when we actively choose to live in obedience, when it’s easy and definitely when it is not. 

What habits or practices have you found to help you pursue a growing relationship with God? Tell us in the comments!