Spiritual Health Suggestions

Before you learn how to improve your spiritual health with some recommendations, take the Spiritual Health Assessment to determine the state of your spiritual maturity.

Ensure you understand the ABC of Christian Growth and how to share your faith through the ABC of Evangelism. Check out the six free eBooks at Discipleship Books Free Download.

I look forward to reading the Bible daily.

Make room in your daily schedule for Bible reading in a quiet place.
Complete the New Testament first, reading at least a chapter/day. Then complete the Old Testament. Then the New Testament again, etc. Use a translation you can understand with help (e.g., Life Application Study Bible, NIV Study Bible).
Daily write down in 1-3 sentences at least one life application.

I look forward to spending time with God in prayer daily.

Make room in your daily schedule for at least 10 minutes per day of prayer in a quiet place.
Balance your prayer time among praising God, expressing trust, confessing sin, yielding to God, expressing thanks, and making requests for yourself and others.
Verbalize your prayers to keep your mind from wandering.

I daily deny myself by offering God my body to use as He desires.

Memorize Romans 12:1, NIV— “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Daily ask God’s Spirit to control and empower you --e.g., “Lord, I yield to your control right now. Apart from your life flowing through me, I can do nothing that will make any difference for your Kingdom. Bless me to be a blessing. May rivers of living water flow from my innermost being today for your glory.”

I forgive, pray for, and ask God to bless those who have hurt me.

List everyone whose name can’t pass through your mind without causing a ruckus.
Pray for God to bless each one specifically by name every day.
When you encounter your enemies, do for them whatever love requires, not what your emotions suggest. Love chooses to bless.

I spend at least four hours each week feeding my spiritual life and serving God by serving others.

Calculate how much time you spend each week feeding your spiritual life through Bible reading, listening to Christian radio, prayer, reading Christian books, time in small groups/worship services, preparing to teach Bible lessons, etc.
Calculate how much time you spend serving God by serving others, such as serving at the food bank, helping your neighbor clean up after a snowstorm, preparing for teaching Sunday school, etc.
What changes in your priorities do you need to make? Your life should reflect God’s priorities.
Feeding your own spiritual life is vital. Serving others is equally important.

Using my gifts and abilities to serve God through a specific ministry in my church gives me joy.

If you’ve no specific ministry yet, with whom can you talk in your church that can help connect you with a ministry for which you have passion?
If you are in a joyless ministry, with whom can you talk to find a ministry that’s a better fit?
Your team needs you. Please don’t put it off!

I generously and cheerfully support the Lord's work financially.

Memorize 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 (NIV) –“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
What percentage of your income did you give to God last year?
How will your generosity and cheer grow this year?

I daily allow God to love others through me.

You can’t love others in your strength. Recognize your inability to love God and others as you ought (John 15:5).
You must say NO to your selfish desires and agenda before saying YES to loving others by meeting their needs.
God can love others through you. When the Holy Spirit controls you, He loves others through you (Galatians 5:22-23).

Each week I could write at least one way I loved my neighbor as myself.

Set a daily goal of being an instrument of God’s blessing in the life of at least one person. Pray for discernment to embrace the opportunities God provides.
At the end of each day, review whom you blessed and how or how you could have been a blessing but weren’t.
You don’t accidentally become a more loving person. It’s intentional and requires yourself dying so you can live in the land of love, joy, and peace.

Each week I could write at least one way I loved another believer as Jesus loves me.

A practical way to love another believer is to use your gifts and abilities. Use them to serve God through a specific ministry in your church that gives you joy.
“From him [Christ] the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:16, NIV).

I promote the gospel by praying for the salvation of lost people I know, living a Christ-centered life, praising God enthusiastically in our worship service, giving financially to support evangelism, and being prepared to share my hope in Christ with others who ask about it.

Develop a list of at least six unsaved people and pray daily for their salvation.
Following Jesus is an assignment with no vacation time!
If you’re more committed to Jesus than your favorite sports teams, show it inside and outside the sanctuary.
Give to at least one organization (hopefully, your local church!) that effectively reaches people for Christ.
Think about, organize, and write your faith journey, focusing on your life before following Jesus, how you decided to follow him, and the difference following him has made. Memorize it. Look for open doors to share your hope in Christ with others.

I look forward to and attend the worship service every week.

To experience inspiring worship every week, come inspired!
To come inspired, worship God privately and publicly every day by living for him in all you say and do.
If you show up inspired, you’ll probably leave inspired and look forward to doing it again next week!

Weekly, I actively participate in at least one small group (including Sunday school)

Believers need one another as much as the parts of the human body need each other (1 Corinthians 12:21).
Start attending a small group in your church and soak and participate in the Jesus-centered life you find there.
Please don’t put it off! Not being part of a small group is hazardous to your spiritual life.

Gratitude motivates me to serve God.

Meditate on the hopeless forever you deserve from God and on Jesus’ taking you sin-penalty on Himself.
Daily count the ways God has blessed you and give thanks.
Give thanks for His blessings in the endless eternity ahead – “Now if we are children, then we are heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17, NIV).
Choose to overflow with thankfulness (Colossians 2:7), not with complaints!

I feel a deep need for God's grace every day.

You don’t need God’s grace to serve yourself, but you can’t successfully serve God and make an eternal difference through your efforts. God doesn’t expect you to serve him apart from His grace. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5, NIV).
Realize how great the resources are through Christ and His grace to do everything God has appointed for you to do for Him. “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13, NIV).

I balance speaking the truth and speaking it with love.

Speaking the truth in love is necessary for the body of Christ to mature (Ephesians 4:15).
Since that’s so, why do you withhold the truth? Is it more important that people like you or that they are like Christ?
Do you see the underlying selfishness in wanting people to like us more than we want them to be transformed?
Like a policeman’s billy club, brutalizing others with the truth is equally self-centered.
Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14), and he wants to be that in you.
God uses the truth as a surgical scalpel to cut away what’s not Christ-like in His church – but you need to deliver that truth under the warm, bright operating room light of love.

I regularly give to meet the needs of the poor.

Jesus loved the poor and equated your treatment of them with your treatment of Him (Matthew 25:31-46).
Jesus is your life (Philippians 1:21), so His concern for the poor should also be yours.
How can you demonstrate consistent concern for the plight of the poor? For example, donate items to or volunteer at the food bank. Minister to the homeless. Give to organizations such as World Vision to minister to the poor.
Sponsor orphans. Transport needy people. Build houses for the needy through Habitat for Humanity. Provide gift cards for the needy. Deliver meals on wheels to senior citizens.
Do chores for a needy person. Send cards to nursing home residents. Donate your good used shoes and clothing.
Commit yourself to regularly doing one or two things that minister to the poor and needy.

I’m helping one or more other people become more like Jesus.

You’re born spiritually to reproduce and don’t have to be perfect. Not everything in your life is worth imitating, and the part that’s like Jesus is the part that others can copy while you work on the rest.
Helping others become more like Jesus is God’s Miracle Grow in your spiritual development.
Use reproducible materials that others can use to help others. Consider His Power for Your Weakness. See the Books section.

Incorporating these suggestions will help you become more spiritually mature. Mature Christians make disciples, as discussed in Discipleship Books Free Download. Use the Church Assimilation Strategy to incorporate disciples into your church.

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