With every new year comes a new chance to grow in your walk with God. If that was one of your goals or resolutions this new year, you’ve come to the right place.
It sounds simple, but spiritual growth isn’t really a tangible thing you can track or manipulate—so when rubber meets the road, it can be a hard process, even just to start. So I thought I’d share my top six ways to jumpstart spiritual growth in any stage of the Christian life, as well as a few additional ways to grow and change as the year goes on.
Keep in mind that the key to spiritual growth isn’t a habit or discipline. The key is a moldable heart, a heart that’s open to God’s work and diligently seeking Him. If you’re halfhearted about God in any way, you’re not going to see growth. It’s only when you’re fully surrendered to Him and the work of His Spirit that you can see and experience change. That is when those strong, healthy habits and spiritual disciplines really work.
1 | get in the word
We all know it. We’ve all heard it, from the nursery to the sanctuary. Read your Bible.
If you’re not reading your Bible, don’t despair. All you have to do is start. Pick a book that interests you, or start in the Gospels (many folks recommend the Gospel of John first), or begin in the beginning, if you’re feeling tough. Especially when the first of the year rolls around, it can be all too easy to bite off more than you can chew—like with a Bible in a year plan. But if you start with something too heavy, like reading multiple chapters in a day or beginning in Leviticus, then before long, you’ll find yourself reading less and less and eventually nothing at all.
The trick is to start small and build up to more. Read one verse a day. Read a Psalm or a chapter of Proverbs a day. Read something simple and fun, like Esther and Ruth and Jonah or Matthew and Mark and Luke.
What matters is that you read consistently. That may look like one verse in the morning or before bed, or a few chapters once every couple of days that you can meditate on throughout the week. You may not be able to read the Bible in a year (I still haven’t), but if you can take it one step at a time, however large or small the step, then eventually you’ll have read the whole Bible in your own time.
If you already have a consistent reading schedule, this may be the year to take it up a notch.
So if you’ve been steady with reading your verse or chapter or chunk of chapters each day, try reading a little bit more. Include a Psalm with your current reading plan. Read two chapters instead of one (you can break it up over the day). Read a Proverb a day. Or mix up your schedule and read at a different time—for example, I read a chapter before bed every day for a few years, then in 2023, I started reading a chapter first thing in the morning in addition.
As good as reading the Bible is, just reading it is not the end goal. Getting into the Word = getting the Word into you.
It can be all too easy to make the mistake of just reading for the sake of reading—or worse, skim reading. I think we’ve all been in that place before. The solution? Ask God to give you the desire to read His Word. I did, and it worked. Now I want to the read Bible, and to read more, and to learn more, and to understand it better. And if you don’t have understanding and none of what you read makes sense, ask for that too (James 1:5)!
It also helps to get a study Bible (like this one) with notes that explain the text and encourage you to dig deeper as you read. You can also make use of your Bible’s many other resources, like articles, maps, concordance, and in-page cross references (usually located at the top of the page, off to the side) to discover more from the Bible.
Utilizing study guides, commentaries, supplementary materials (like this book that brings Psalm 23 to life, and this one that guides you in better reading and understanding the Psalms) from authors you trust can also enrich your Bible reading.
Ultimately, just expect to gain something each time you read your Bible. Pray before you get started. Open your heart to receive from God, and let His Holy Spirit minister to you as you read.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16
2 | pray daily
Something else we get told about a lot without ever being instructed in is prayer. Daily prayer is the cornerstone of our relationship with God. After all, it’s how we communicate with Him. How can we presume to be in a relationship with someone if we don’t ever actually talk to them?
Like Bible reading, the trick to prayer is to start simple. Just tell God good morning when you wake up, or let Him know how your day went before you go to bed. Pray for safety as you drive to work, or thanks when you sit down to eat. And when you offer to pray for someone, even just in the comments on a social media post, stop right there and pray. Short, sweet, simple.
But don’t stop there. Once you get into the habit of prayer, find ways to go deeper. Ask God questions. Listen for answers. Pray scriptures. Go somewhere quiet and pray for as long as you can. Make a list of prayer requests throughout the day or the week, then take time to bring them before God.
The important part is that prayer is real. Real talk. Real conversations. Reciting prayers is so, so good—but it’s not the only way to pray. Alongside the Lord’s prayer or the same bless-this-food prayer, have some actual one-on-one communication with God.
If you’re not sure how to get beyond the same old prayers, you can always pray and ask God to help you (and kill two birds with one stone), or take a look at some of the most personal prayers in Scripture: the Psalms. Observe how David, Asaph, and the sons of Korah pray—without pretense, just pouring their hearts out in anguish or praise to God. Or simply take note from Jesus Himself in Matthew 6:5-13. His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, serves as not only the best rote prayer but also as a model for our own prayers.
It begins with praise to God, then recognizing the true purpose of prayer (to align our hearts with God’s will). Next, requests, keeping in mind that God knows what we need before we ask (verse 8). Then asking for forgiveness, confessing our sins if need be, and asking for His protection and deliverance. Finally, the KJV includes a hymn of praise: “for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever”. Although there’s debate on whether this closing statement should be included in the Lord’s Prayer—since its origins are dubious—I personally believe a doxological ending to your prayers can’t hurt.
There are multiple ways to use the Lord’s Prayer as a template for your prayers—from the six Ps to the five components to simply taking it line by line. Regardless of what specific formula you use, a good prayer (although there are no bad prayers…except for maybe this one) praises God, thanks God, petitions God, and seeks God’s will.
The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:5b-7
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
3 | find a way to serve & get involved
1 Peter 4:10 says that each of us has been given a gift. Some of those gifts are spiritual gifts, like those Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12, or calling of prophet, pastor, teacher, etc. in Ephesians 4. Other gifts are physical—either skills, passions, or natural-born talents that can be used to benefit others.
If you don’t know what your gift, spiritual or physical, is, take some time to figure it out. What comes easy for you (i.e., public speaking, teaching, childcare)? What kind of skills or abilities do you have (i.e., playing an instrument, singing, writing, tech)?
Once you know what your gift is, find a way to use it. And honestly, even if you still aren’t absolutely certain what your gift is, find a way to be used. Your time, money, or simple willingness to serve is itself a gift. So look for needs in your community, your church, your campus or workplace or home, and meet them.
Even if you can’t raise your hand and offer to start up a whole new ministry, you can get involved in a variety of small but important ways.
Join a group of ladies who organize baby/bridal showers.
Get on the nursery rotation.
Lead kids to and from their classes during VBS.
Cook food for shut-ins, families who’ve lost loved ones, or those in recovery from surgery, sickness, and labor.
Write encouraging cards and notes to folks in the nursing home, or people you’ve missed seeing in church for whatever reason, or soldiers overseas.
Clean up after an event.
Bring coffee and donuts to Sunday School.
Offer to fill-in for teachers or tech (clicking on projector slides is easy, guys).
Look into ministries your church heads up or supports (e.g., food banks, women’s centers, children’s centers, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc.) and see if they need volunteers (they probably do).
Donate to a local missionary.
Do an Angel tree, tot drive, Operation Christmas Child, or pack backpacks for back-to-school.
Pack bags or donate items for children in foster care
In the end, what matters is that you know how you can serve, you ask the Lord for opportunities to serve, and you offer your services to whomever needs them. Getting involved with your church and its ministries is the best place to start, but the options are endless. (My list kept getting longer and longer.)
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:10
4 | get connected with fellow believers
On the opposite side of the same coin as getting involved, get connected. If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard dozens of sermons about how you need to be in church every Sunday or you will burn or you’re not a Christian or [insert horrendous untruth here]. Going to church every single time the doors are open is not going to make or break your relationship with God. So if you’re struggling to find/attend a church consistently, don’t feel guilty. We all go through seasons of searching for a church, being out of church, or even wrestling with church—whether because of illness, trauma, hurt, moving, or whatever reason.
However, church still has its place. I’ll be the very first person to tell you that our modern institution of the church building/organization is extremely flawed and in no way does it resemble the early church. But forsaking it entirely isn’t going to fix it. We as individuals, as The Church, need to change before we can expect our institutions to be changed.
Church in its essence (that’s the good part we want to preserve) is connection with other believers. Fellowship. Edification. Mutual sharing. Discipleship. Communion (with each other and God through the Eucharist).
And the truth is that you can do that anywhere. At work, in a home, in the community, in a park, in the grocery store, etc. That verse pastors love to whip out when attendance is getting low, Hebrews 10:25, doesn’t translate to “be in church every week or you’re a bad Christian.” It means “don’t let anything get in the way of you being an active member of the Body of Christ.” And sometimes, fear (likely of death) might get in the way, as was no doubt the case in the context of this verse. And sometimes, the church building itself might be what’s coming between you and the community of God.
The only requirement for church is that you can’t be alone. You can worship and commune with God and learn and grow alone (hence quiet time, prayer closets, etc.), but you can’t have church or be the church on your own. You can’t fellowship by yourself. You can’t corporate worship by yourself. You can’t share or disciple or teach or be taught by yourself.
You’ve got to get somewhere where there’s other Christians. You’ve got to surround yourself with like-minded believers who can edify you and whom you can edify. You’ve got to have community to be enriched, to love and be loved, to learn kindness and gentleness, to practice patience and peacemaking, to serve.
What makes Christianity, and especially the early church, so unique and unearthly is that it cannot exist outside of community. Communion + unity. Unified fellowship. It’s an absolute necessity for a thriving Christian, for the Gospel to be exemplified and shared. Christ 100% could have ministered all by Himself (He’s God and doesn’t need people slowing Him down and asking a million dumb questions), but He chose not to. Every decision and move He made, especially those which were recorded in the Gospels, was to be an example to us, 2,000 years later, of how to live.
And He started with community.
So find some Christians. Some who are wiser than you. Some who are struggling. Some who can teach. Some who can prophesy. Some who can lead. Some who can work behind the scenes. Some who are just like you. Some who are a little bit different.
Those Christians may be in the same local body as you, or they may be at a different church, or they may be halfway across the globe. Just find them. Build relationships with them. Serve them and serve with them.
5 | tithe faithfully & give offerings
If you’re already involved with a good local body, this doesn’t require any extra steps. Simply set aside 10% of your income and when you see that offering plate, either on a table or being passed around, drop it in.
More and more today, tithing has become a point of contention. We’ve seen money destroy whole churches and individual faith as corrupt pastors use the pulpit as a get-rich-quick scheme, careless of whose lives and beliefs they ruin. But this is nothing new. Greed has been trying to wreck the church for centuries.
But does that mean removing finances from the church or money from our relationship with God is the solution?
Nope.
We’re in danger of developing a financial purity culture. Just like some folks refuse to talk about sex, marriage, lust, etc., lest sin creep in, a lot of Christians/churches nowadays refuse to talk about money, generosity, tithing, and finances lest greedy scams sprout up and distort the Gospel.
Unfortunately, that’s just going to create more spiritual financial illiteracy, harden people’s hearts, do God an injustice, and eventually lead to the next generation of Christians being easily susceptible to the same scams we’re trying to avoid.
The truth is, God is involved in our finances, as He’s involved in absolutely everything, and He wants to be invited into our finances.
I can’t say claiming freedom over unpaid bills is going to miraculously make them disappear (that would be nice, though), but I can say “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).
This may be an oldie brought back, but I’ve seen an increasing number of people deny tithing as an Old Testament practice. (I’ve also seen people deny the Trinity. Just because you can say whatever on the internet doesn’t mean you should. When they said “everyone is a theologian,” they didn’t mean “everyone can share their own theology as gospel.”)
And maybe it is an Old Testament thing. But Jesus was known for taking OT laws to the next level. My pastor isn’t going to pass the offering plate around each week, but he will tell you that Jesus loved to say “You have heard it said…but I say to you.” Just like Christ wanted His followers to go the extra mile (literally), turn the other cheek, consider lust as adultery and hatred as murder, He wanted to see us serve better, give more, and humble ourselves. Don’t just give what’s required; give all that you have (Mark 12:41-44). Don’t just give alms; wash feet. Humble yourself and serve others as if they were above you, as if they were God Himself (Matt. 25:40; cf. Col. 3:23-24).
Whether you believe tithing is necessary or a commandment or not, try it. You might like it. 😉 And if you feel like going that extra mile, or you’re not making a consistent income yet, or you’re not at a church you feel comfortable tithing to (been there), then give an offering. An offering is simply that—a monetary gift of any amount that comes from the goodness of your heart. When your church is taking up a love offering for a missionary or ministry, give what you’ve got in your wallet that day. Or when you hear someone speak or share their testimony, or when you notice someone struggling, or when a friend is going on a mission trip.
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:7
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
Proverbs 3:9-10
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
Malachi 3:10
6 | fast
Lent’s on the horizon, folks! It’s the perfect time to start incorporating fasting into your repertoire of spiritual disciplines. 👀
If you’ve never fasted before, it can seem scary and overwhelming. Especially in the context of fasting from food entirely. I’m not going to blindly advocate starving yourself for spiritual reasons, because that’s a very personal decision to make. But fasting can take many forms. Although the traditional method is to give up food (or specific kinds of food, i.e., the Daniel fast) and pray, you can give up anything and replace it with more prayer and time with God. Whether it’s something natural and necessary, like food, or an addiction or sin (this could range from screen time and sodas to consuming ungodly/unhealthy media and gossiping) that’s standing in the way of your spiritual growth—try a few days without it.
Ultimately, everything I’ve mentioned in this post hinges on fasting. You can’t expect to grow spiritually if you’re still bound by sin and addiction, or if your relationship with God has grown cold and stale. Before you try to take on a new Bible reading plan or volunteer in children’s church, take some time to reflect on your relationship with God. To pray and seek Him first. To give up the things that hold you back.
If it’s your first time fasting, start simple. Give up coffees on Mondays. Turn off the radio on your ride to work or school and pray instead. Wake up ten minutes earlier so you can read your Bible or do a devotional. Cut back on screen time and listen to worship music instead.
If you’ve fasted before, go a step further. Cut out something different. Fast for a longer period of time. Add something new (e.g., prayer/gratitude journaling, scripture meditation, another chapter of scripture, 20 more minutes of quiet time) to your routine. Use this as a time to really evaluate yourself and change up your rhythms and surrender things to God.
Fasting doesn’t have to be weird or complicated. It just has to come from the heart. The way I see it, fasting is inconvenience yourself to commune with God. Whatever that looks like for you, go for it.
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Joel 2:12-13
other ways to grow
go on prayer walks
Or prayer drives if the weather/your area doesn’t allow for walks.
incorporate worship music into your day
If you need recs, lemme know in the comments!
start a good devotional
I highly, highly recommend My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (the original version, not the updated ones)
journal your thoughts on scripture or prayers
read a theological, expository, or spiritual growth book
Not self-help. But something like Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot, The Lord of Psalm 23 by David Gibson, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, etc. Simple and entertaining, but also enriching and thought-provoking.
In what ways do you want to grow this year?
What's holding you back? What would help you move forward?
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