Skip to main content

Preparing for Success in Your Walk with God


We have all heard the quotes and the illustrations about being prepared, and they are all good, such as a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln - “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Everyone of us (hopefully) spend time preparing for work, an exam, for an upcoming presentation, etc.

One thing we are often intimidated by is being the godly person that God wants us to be. He commands us to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16) which is a very high calling. When we look at who we are we realize that we have a very long way to go to even start to be who He expects us to be.

Let me encourage you - IT IS NOT AS HARD AS YOU THINK! There are some basic things that each of us can do to become that holy spiritual person. Now, I'm not saying that you need to become a monk which is not what God wants nor is necessarily holy. I am talking about WALKING WITH GOD. If we can learn to walk with God, spend time with God, get to know God, allow Him to change us - then I can become that holy spiritual person that He wants me to be.

Here are some things that can help you be successful. Now these are not spiritual things, but they are basic habits that will help you to be able to walk with God successfully. Now, before we jump into it, walking with God involves many things but all fall into simple categories: Bible reading, prayer, worship (personal, family, and corporate [church]).

Here are some things that I do to make sure I can spend the time; be on time; be rested; be ready to do these things in my life:

CONCERNING DAILY DEVOTIONAL LIFE:

  • I go to bed on time, so I can get up on time (we have to be disciplined about this, but our time with God each day is of vital importance)
  • Each night I gather my devotional materials (Bible, prayer list, journal, pen, glasses, iPad for Faithlife church prayer requests, even my back pillow on my reading chair) so I can be ready first thing in the morning.
  • I actually get my coffee set up the night before, my wife's tea kettle and tea bag in her cup ready to go.
  • I sound goofy, but I lay out my work-out clothes for the gym which I do right after my devotions most mornings. 
  • I have my phone, iPad and even my computer go to "do not disturb" automatically for my devotion time (1 1/2's roughly for me depending on what time I get up) so there are no distractions from text, notifications, calls or emails.

CONCERNING CHURCH:

  • I do all the things above - including laying out my clothing for church (you need to do that for the kids as well) we always did. 
  • I also need to make sure I don't overdo Saturday nights. As a matter of fact I rarely schedule something on Saturday evening because I can wear myself out and then I am not 100% for God on Sunday mornings (you would be surprised how many people miss church on Sunday because they gave away their best hours to something else on Saturday and stayed up too late). We've got to give God better.
  • When I worked a secular job, I always gave church the priority and did all I could to request, badger, and get my church service times off. Not always possible for all, but if you pray and try, God will help you.
  • For Wednesday nights we always have our meal planned ahead so we can be at church (still do that today). Lately, we plan a nice cauliflower pizza for after church, there are other times when we would plan a light meal before through a take out order, or cold cuts at home. 

CONCERNING FAMILY DEVOTIONS:

  • Everything above, with these additions:
  • You can do it with supper, sit down to eat, read the Word together and pray. 
  • Do it before anything else - everything else is a distraction, God's Word is the most important thing for our families, spend time in it. 
  • It is a good time to encourage discipline with the kids in their devotional life, you can incorporate a family reading time, and then send the kids to do their personal reading and prayer. 

Success in our Walk with God is sometimes just making the necessary preparations to have the time and energy to do what we God wants us to do. This is not a complete list, but just some ideas that can help you draw close to God in 2022.

  • Pastor Mark Sage

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ADVERSITIES & CHURCH

After my devotions each morning I try to work on my memory verses.  Today, in succession, two verses came up that relate a great and important truth that a spoke to me.  The two verses were: Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.  & Proverbs 24:10 If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Adversity, in a simplified definition, means "trouble."  Certainly no one looks for trouble.  Sickness, accidents, mishaps, and the resulting distress happen in everyone's lives and are often unforeseen.  They can at times be daunting.  God teaches us not to faint in the face of adversity; not to stop doing what we are supposed to and performing our vows and service to God, family, and community.   I think that we have expanded our definition of adversity in our generation to include words like "tiredness" and even "opportunity." We usually aren't dealing with troubles as much as distractions a...
1 comment
Read more

THE GREATEST NEED IN 2024!

Often, I hear complaints about what is going on in the world today and in churches.  People have become disillusioned with society and even with church.  They are mad at their government, upset with society with its wicked pop-culture, critical of churches, and always blame someone else for whatever woes have come there way.  We blame politicians for their corruption, the government for deceiving us, the schools for brainwashing the children, the church for not being exciting enough or having enough ministries and the pastor for not being deep enough/hard enough/soft enough/or inspiring enough or whatever criticism we have.  Then everyone seems to have a “disease,” a trauma, or a disability, giving themselves an excuse for what they do or why they allow sin in their own life.   As bad as all these things are, they are going to continue. The world will still be wicked and hate God as the Bible says.  When the world speaks well o...
Post a Comment
Read more

BE BOLD FOR THE TRUTH! - Like John the Baptist

Don’t back off what you know to be true. The Bible is real, it is God's Word to man. We need to hold to what it says with conviction. John the Baptist did. It landed him in prison - just that one statement – “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” (Mark 6:18) But, he didn’t sway from it, he did not apologize for it! He stuck with the truth. A couple of men that I never personally followed but was also not against who years ago made a bold statement to America which I "AMENED" at the time: Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson both publicly stated boldly that 9/11 was a wake-up call to the American Christian; that it was the God’s lifting of his hand of protection and then a very short time later, both took back their comments.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMkBgA9_oQ4 https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126698&page=1 No, they were right, God did allow it - God certainly lifted His protective hand on our nation. Sure, it was a wicked act of lost hell bound...
Post a Comment
Read more