When I was in college, I learned about spiritual disciplines. My evangelism professor was the person who first started talking about these disciplines and made them meaningful to my life. Since I hadn't grown up in a Christian home or church, I was unaware of what spiritual disciplines were. However, when I learned about them in college, I started seeing just how important they are to our Christian walk.
Around the New Year, it is easy to fall into the practice of making resolutions. While there is nothing inherently wrong with making resolutions, they are rather hard to uphold. Within a few weeks or months, we have given up on them. This can be fine if our New Year's resolution was to cook a new recipe each day, but if we are making a New Year's resolution related to the Bible, following Jesus, or spiritual disciplines, then we cannot easily give up on them.
With the New Year here, we might want to be thinking about which spiritual disciplines we are struggling with. If we are struggling in all of them, we need to know that is okay. Don't allow anxiety to prevent you from working through each discipline and cultivating it correctly. Lean on God and do your best. He will help you as you cultivate spiritual disciplines in your life.
Here are six spiritual disciplines to carry out through the New Year.
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1. Daily Bible Reading
1. Daily Bible Reading
Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” The word spoken of here is the Bible. The Bible is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Without the Bible, we would be lost as to what to do. God’s direction and divine guidance cannot be revealed to us apart from reading the Bible. The Bible is infallible, which means it is perfect in every way and cannot let us down.
Start working on bringing daily Bible reading into your New Year by taking time each day to read God’s Word. Paul tells us, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). By reading the Bible each day, we will be able to learn about God as well as teach others.
Thorough study of the Bible will equip us with everything we need in order to live holy and righteous lives to the Lord. Ultimately, this is what God wants for our life. By reading the Bible, we become conscious of God’s teachings and we strive to live in obedience to Him. Daily Bible reading will keep God’s commands upon our hearts and encourage us to faithfully follow Him. When we are living in sin, the Bible will be able to bring us back to repentance.
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2. Daily Prayer
2. Daily Prayer
In addition to daily Bible reading, we also need to carry out daily prayer in the New Year. Prayer is our direct line of communication with God. This is a great privilege as we don’t need to overlook this beautiful blessing. Sadly, many people believe we burden God with our prayers. This is not true as He wants us to bring all of our worries, concerns, and troubles to Him (1 Peter 5:7).
When you go to God in prayer each day, tell Him everything you want to tell Him. You don’t have to worry about a prayer being too long, too short, too big, or too confusing. God understands all of your prayers and thoughts, and He will answer them in accordance with His will. However, how will He answer your prayers unless you bring them to Him?
God already knows what we are thinking, what we need, and what we desire, but we have to bring these requests to Him. This is part of acknowledging our dependence on Him. God knows what we need, yet He wants us to freely come to Him. If we never go to Him in prayer, we will be sending the message that we don’t believe in His power, goodness, or blessings. Take up the practice this year to go to God in prayer every day and watch your relationship with Him be transformed.
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3. Spending Uninterrupted Time with God
3. Spending Uninterrupted Time with God
Spending uninterrupted time with God means both Bible reading and prayer time, but it also means we go somewhere where we will not be interrupted by others. Personally, it can be hard to find time to spend by myself and this affects my walk with the Lord. Daily devotional time will be much more beneficial if we can spend it with just God. The constant notifications from our phone, the conversations of other people around us, or even the noise of an air conditioner can cause us to become distracted.
Instead of allowing these things to interrupt our time with God, we need to sit quietly as His feet alone. Maybe this means coming up with your own prayer closet, as popularized in the Kendrick Brothers film, “War Room.” Set up a time where you can go into this closet and spend uninterrupted time with God. The privacy will be beneficial as you are pouring your heart out to Him. You will also benefit from the quiet silence as you listen to God speak through His Word.
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4. Getting Involved with a Local Church
4. Getting Involved with a Local Church
Many Christians stop going to church because of a traumatic event. This is a sad reality as even Christians can hurt other Christians. If you have been hurt by a church or Christians in the past, know my heart goes out to you. All of your pain is valid and God sees every tear that you shed (Psalm 56:8).
When you are ready, maybe it will be time to start going to another church. Don’t return to the church you went to before, but rather, try out a new church. Maybe this could be a church your friends go to or one you have heard great things about. If going in person feels too much right now, know that is okay too. You can try a few online churches if you want or listen to podcasts that cover different Bible topics.
If you don’t have a history of church trauma or abuse, try to get involved with a local church in your area. Get involved with their community outreach program, their food kitchen, or their evangelism efforts. All of these things can help your Christian growth and make you a stronger believer in the Lord. It will take much discipline to show up to each church event and Sunday worship service, but you will be cultivating this skill for life.
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5. Meeting Up with Other Believers to Encourage Them
5. Meeting Up with Other Believers to Encourage Them
Outside of seeing believers at church, you also need to meet up with other Christians in order to encourage them and build them up. Maybe this means going to visit a friend who has been struggling in their faith. Or maybe this means spending time with a shut-in who used to go to your church. Think about who needs your encouragement and go to them.
Each week this upcoming year, try to meet up with other believers to encourage them. You will quickly discover that your own heart will be encouraged the more you encourage others. God will be pleased when you go out of your way to help other believers and build them up. In truth, when we encourage other believers, we will be fulfilling the biblical teaching of, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
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6. Applying the Bible into Your Life
6. Applying the Bible into Your Life
Another spiritual discipline to carry out in the New Year is to apply the Bible into your life. Applying the Bible into your life is told to us by the half-brother of the Lord, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). As James tells us in this passage, we need to do what the Bible says. Only listening to the Bible, but not doing what it says, is like a man who has forgotten what He looks like despite just looking at his reflection (James 1:23-25).
Applying the Bible is a challenge, yet it is worth it. Every time we apply a biblical teaching into our life, we are bringing glory to God. We are bringing glory to God because we are truly living in obedience to Him. Obeying God helps us to live a life that is pleasing to Him. Not only this, but it also helps us to grow in our walk with Him.
No longer will we live for ourselves. Instead, we will live for God. Throughout this New Year, we need to continue to apply the Bible into our lives and overtime, our life will reflect the Lord’s love. Whenever we are struggling to apply the Bible, we can turn to Jesus and He will help us apply each teaching into our life.
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Originally published January 09, 2025.
