Simple Tweaks That Elevated My Christian Life

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As Christians, our goal every morning when we wake up is to improve our walk with God.

I have been a Christian for over 35 years, and I’ve seen the results of God’s work in my life. I’ve gone through periods where I’ve strayed from Him (including the consequences that come with that) and the blessings from periods of obedience.

But these are things I have started doing in the past two years after He saved me from almost death, and while they sound simple, they have made a big difference!

Side note: there’s more about that in the book I wrote about it – Faith in Crisis: From My Father’s Deathbed to My Own.

It’s a quick read and goes through all the ugly details of the worst time of my life, how I leaned on God to rebound, and what I learned that hopefully reminds you that God is faithful.

It’s quite possible you’re already doing some (or all) of these, so if you have additional suggestions, please let me know! I’m always looking for additional ways to get closer to God so like to hear how other believers like to worship.

These involve tweaks to your daily Bible reading, your prayer life, and both!

Studying the Bible:

Read through the Bible cover-to-cover.

Like I said, I’ve been a born-again Christian for over 35 years. However, I didn’t read through the Bible in a year, cover-to-cover, until 2021. It always seemed so daunting. And while I thought I knew all the stories, I didn’t.

For example, I hadn’t read the entirety of the minor prophets. That’s actually quite important, because Micah and Zechariah played important roles in foretelling the coming of Christ. And was quoted in the New Testament.

And just as importantly, reading through each book chronologically was helpful to build the story of Israel. While we all know that the Israelites turned against God (as we all have) and were sent into exile, do you know all the details that led to it? Or that led to Israel breaking from Judah as different kingdoms? Or the return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple?

I found there was a ton of power in reading through the entire book rather than just doing daily devotionals. Yes, I still do daily devotionals, but I am also on my third year of reading through the Bible in a year.

If you are looking for a schedule, I built one here. You can start on any day of the year, and if you miss a few days, you can come back to where you left off because it’s on a day-by-day basis rather than being attached to a calendar day.

Read an actual Bible, not just on your phone.

I still read devotionals on my phone, along with the corresponding Bible verses, for the most part. But I try to do as much with my physical Bible. And as to the last point, I now always use the physical book for my daily 365 day reading plan.

There’s a lot to be said for being able to highlight and make notes in the margin. (Yes! You should always be writing in your Bible!)

Also, many versions have additional notes for modern day readers. My personal Bible is a version done by my favorite pastor, Charles Stanley.

His Life Principles Bible has a ton of notes to put specific verses into context in addition to longer insets, including each of his 30 life principles. My favorite is “obey God, and leave all the consequences to Him.”

While you’re still getting God’s word by reading the link to a passage on your phone, it is a much richer experience when you can really immerse yourself and meditate on the word with additional instructional materials and taking notes.

Prayer Life:

Praying out loud.

I used to pray when I woke up before getting out of bed. Silently and still sleepy. There’s nothing wrong with that – it is a wonderful thing to wake up and immediately say hi to God and thank Him.

However, for a more powerful morning prayer experience, I started dedicating time to prayer after getting out of bed and getting started on my morning routine.

Praying out loud prevents my thoughts from wondering and makes me feel like I’m more fully pouring my heart out to God. Also, it feels like a conversation, like I’m talking to a friend.

This might not make as much of a difference for you as it did for me, but there’s a distinctly different tone and feeling and sense of connection with God when I do this. Especially when done while…

Pray on your knees.

While the first part here is praying out loud, I have also found it makes a difference to actually physically bow down before God.

I go into my bedroom, kneel down in front of my bed, clasp my hands, and pray to God. The reason I even tried this is because Charles Stanley often said that you stand strongest on your knees and that there was power in physically kneeling before God.

I never really understood this because I’m not Catholic. But after a few prayers on my knees, I can see what Charles Stanley meant!

Do you have to pray on your knees or out loud? No, of course not. You can talk to God anywhere, any time. But stealing away for some quiet time where you talk out loud to Him on your knees will greatly enrich your prayer life.

Both:

Keep a Bible study journal.

This is just your personal collection of notes about verses and what spoke to you. I look at this kind of like taking sermon notes at church. In fact, you can use your church notebook for this!

The reason this is important to me is that different verses speak to you in different ways, depending upon what you’re going through and what God is trying to say to you at that moment. It’s good to go back and look at how God has spoken to you in different ways and to remember what He said!

Keep a prayer journal.

Keeping track of your prayers is important if you are a prayer warrior for others. Sometimes that list gets long (and you always want your prayer list to be long!)

But potentially even more importantly is that it is a written reminder of God’s faithfulness and record of answering your prayers. In other words, be sure to record when prayers were answered – this becomes a visual, written reminder of God providing for you.

This one is partially why I wrote a book about my experience. I thought it would be a public gratitude journal, memorializing my prayers and documenting when (and how) God answered them.

See? I told you they weren’t anything mind-blowing. But if you start doing just one or two of these, I’m willing to bet you’ll be just as happy as I have been in how it improves your faith and daily walk with God. Did I miss one of your favorites? Let me know!