Hello my name is Zhanna. I love Jesus with all my heart. Jesus has become everything to me. His love has captivated my heart. This was not always the case. There were times in my life where my love for Him would grow cold. In those moments I would come back to the basics. I would ask myself, “Is what I’m doing helping me grow with the Lord, or harming my growth?” If you have been a christian for a while now, or just recently found the Lord but have not really seen growth, this post is for you. I wanna share with you five keys to growing deeper in your relationship with Him. These truths unlocked so much in my life. I pray they produce growth in you as you begin to apply then as well.
The first key is probably the most simple. We have all heard this at one point in our lives, but prayer is the communication between your heart and His. We come into prayer to simply talk with him. Throughout your day, acknowledge His presence. Jesus is always speaking, so if we lean our ear into Him we will hear Him speak. The way we grow in the Lord is speaking to Him and allowing Him to speak back. Come just as you are before Him. Be real and honest about what you are going through. Jesus knows everything, yet He is a personal God. He wants to hear your heart. Invite Him into your daily life. He wants to be your friend and friendship is built when you spend time with Him. Make time for God every day, and watch as He begins to reveal Himself to you in incredible ways.
The second key is reading the Word. This gets so overlooked because we just see the bible as another history book. I want to challenge you to see the Bible as the Word of God breathed into people by the Holy Spirit. We cannot know what God is speaking, if we do not read His word. His word is the bread of life. Just as you feed your physical man, so you need to feed your spiritual man. The word is our daily bread that needs to enter us to produce life and growth.
Key number three is praise and worship. For many years I believed that praise and worship was just singing. It’s SO much more. When we praise the Lord, we acknowledge who He is. We give Him authority in our lives to be the Healer, Savior, Provider, and King. In worship we behold Jesus. We take our attention off of everything that distracts us and fix our eyes on Him. In this time of looking at Him, we begin to reflect Him. If you ever asked yourself the question: “How do I look more like Jesus?” This is how. By looking at Him we become like Him. We begin to take on His nature, His qualities; who He is becomes who we are. He is love and peace, so we become love and peace. This is such a vital step in our growth. Our main call is to look like Jesus, and we cannot do that apart from him.
Key number four is being involved in a community. God does not call us to be on our own. He created us for fellowship and friendship. We need to be surrounded by people who encourage us to grow and flourish. As it says in the word, we make up the body of christ. An eye cannot function on its own, so we cannot function on our own apart from the body. We need each other. There is gold that God places in each person. When we build friendships and communities, we become stronger. We get blessed by what God has placed in others, and become a blessing to others with what we carry.
The last key I want to share with you is going on dates with Jesus. I know what you’re thinking. When I first heard someone share about this I thought it was weird. Before you second guess this step, I want to tell you it works. THe God we serve is intentional. Every detail of your life has been crafted by Him, because that is who He is. He loves it when we are intentional with Him also. This step is actually very easy to do. When I say go on a date with Jesus, I mean schedule a time to be with Him outside of your daily agenda. Simply going on a walk with Him will change the way you communicate with Him. Going into nature, and spending quiet time, alone time, just focusing on Him. This is where you can give Him undivided attention. You can simply go for a drive. This does not have to be something big or fancy. The Lord sees your heart. He rewards those who seek Him. When you devote time to Him away from everything that takes up your attention, He begins to reveal His heart to you. Trust is built in this place. What a beautiful thing it is, when Jesus shares the depths of His heart with yours.
There are many other ways to grow in the Lord. These are the basic five I choose to implement into my daily walk with Him. It’s not about knowing a lot, sometimes it’s about talking one thing, and putting it into practice. This is where growth happens, when you apply what you have learned. I challenge each one of you incorporate at least two of these things into our own walk with Jesus. If you already do two of these things daily, than try one that you haven’t done before. My greatest desire is that your Intimacy grows with him who loves you. He desires to be personal to you. He knows everything you will ever need. Share your heart with him.
Many Blessings!
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