How to Practice Spiritual Disciplines (and Make Them Stick)
Spiritual disciplines… in other words, the goals of every Christ-follower. So often, though, these are also the areas we also seem to fall short. How do we get to a place where things like prayer, Bible reading, worship, and fasting are a regular part of our lives? The good news is that we’re going to talk about some handy, practical tips for how to practice spiritual disciplines — and make them stick.
How to Practice Spiritual Disciplines: The Right Mindset
Getting a handle on our spiritual disciplines is all about integrating good things into our daily lives. Think of all the things that we do on a daily basis. Many of these things we don’t really want to do, but we’ve made them a part of our daily lives anyways.
We exercise, take vitamins, keep a healthy sleep schedule, and go to the doctor. Why? Because we recognize that these things are good for us and they benefit us in the long run.
4 Tips for Making Spiritual Disciplines Stick
Disciplines like prayer, studying scripture, fasting, and spreading the Gospel are all good for both our spiritual health and for advancing the kingdom of God through us. But it’s not always easy to dedicate time and energy to these things, especially when the demands of daily life get loud. That’s why it’s so important to prioritize spiritual things daily.
Here are some tips for making spiritual disciplines part of your daily life.
1. Set Reminders on Your Phone
When you schedule dinner with a friend you probably put that on your calendar, so that you remember to show up. If you take medication, you probably set an alarm on your phone to remind yourself to take it.
Feel free to use technology tools to remind yourself to keep your appointments with God.
Do you want to read your Bible more? Set yourself a reminder each night to read.
Do you want to fast once a month? You’d better put that day on your calendar or you will be very unlikely to fast successfully. 📆
We all need daily reminders to do the things we know we should be doing!
2. Link Spiritual Disciplines with an Existing Daily Habit
One sure way to turn a spiritual discipline into a daily habit is connecting it with a habit that you already have!
Maybe you watch or read the news every morning. You could decide that you will also read a chapter of Psalms right after that daily activity.
If you like to have a quiet cup of tea at night to unwind before bed, you could attach your prayer time to your tea time! ☕
Do you drive to work each morning? You could choose to start your daily drive by listening to a devotional podcast.
You get the idea. Whatever physical habits you already have established in your life can be an anchor for spiritual habits that you want to establish in your life.
3. Enlist an Accountability Partner
When you were a child, your parent likely asked you every single morning, “Did you brush your teeth?” Now you do it on your own without any reminders (we hope 😁).
In the same way, establishing a habit might require you to enlist some outside help. If you’ve decided that you want to pray every day, for example, share that goal with someone else. Ask a friend to partner with you to send you daily reminders or to check on you once a week to see how you did. They won’t need to do this forever, maybe just for a few weeks until you establish a pattern.
God gave us each other for a reason. And there’s no shame in leaning on each other for help. 🤝
4. Give Yourself Some Grace
Our relationship with God is not based on checking off daily or weekly lists. It’s about making space in our lives to experience the presence of God and hear his voice loving us and leading us to be more like Him.
Regular spiritual habits help us to keep our relationship with God strong. But there will be times when we miss an appointment with God. Don’t give up or get discouraged, though! Walking with Jesus is a lifelong journey of changing, improving, and transforming.
Just remember:
“His mercies are new every morning. ”