Does the zaniness of the holiday rush derail your quiet time with God?
I understand. For me, traveling or having guests in my home shakes up the status quo. My studio becomes a guest room, and I often stay up later with family and friends. I look forward to early mornings with my grandchildren, enjoying snuggles, books, laughter, and love.
My normal schedule is nowhere in sight, nor do I want it to be!
Strengthen Your Spirit Practices
But, we also don’t want to lose sight of our spiritual goals either. As we head into the busy holiday season, we’ve curated some 15-minute tips to strengthen our spirits. Let’s start with a Bible verse as our foundation:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, Ephesians 3:16 NIV
Now we’ll look at some 15-minute spiritual practices.
Just like we learned in our 15 minute Body and Soul posts over the past month, even a few minutes a day can make a big difference in our overall health of body, soul, and spirit.
1. Breath Prayer. A breath prayer is a simple practice that calms and stills our spirits and reminds us God is in control – even when everything around us feels out of control.
*Inhale and whisper “Be still and know.”
*Exhale and whisper “That I am God.”
*Repeat until you feel yourself relax in God’s presence.
3. Lectio 365. This Bible app offers wonderful morning and evening devotionals that are short but powerful. Highly recommended.
5.Take a gratitude walk. Very similar to the prayer walk, except that as you walk, you name all of the things you’re thankful for. No matter how difficult life is at the moment, we can always cultivate an attitude of gratitude to God.
7. Daily Office. This practice follows the rich tradition of monastic communities recognizing morning, afternoon, and evening prayer times. These beautiful, scripted prayers can be found in books such as The Celtic Daily Prayer and many others. You can also find them on apps like the Daily Prayer app. It took me about 5 to 8 minutes to complete Afternoon Prayer on the app.
9. Short Bible Study. Bible Studies don’t have to be long to be effective. Mary loves to write Bible studies and I’ve linked to the first one in an Ephesians study she is currently running. It’s called 5 Verses Bible Study.
2. Listening Prayer. All you need is a Bible, your journal, a pen, and a few minutes. Open with a prayer asking God to quicken your spirit to only His voice. Ask Him what you need to hear or know today. You can also start with a breath prayer to help quiet yourself. Now simply wait and listen. Write down what you hear in your spirit. It could be a verse of scripture. It might be an impression. Perhaps it sounds like advice.
How Do I Know If It's God Speaking?
First of all, God will never say something that violates scripture. That’s your safety net. Pray over your journal and ask God to confirm what you’ve heard and to let you know if anything is not of Him. Practice this a few times a week for a few minutes. You’ll get better at discerning God’s voice.
4. Take a prayer walk. Walk around your neighborhood for 15 minutes, praying as you walk. Pray for your city, the United States, your family, whatever God lays on your heart.
6.Read a 15-minute devotion. Christian stores, Amazon, and Christian Book Distributor all carry devotionals to strengthen your spirit. Mary and I wrote a Kindle devotional called Pray for the USA. Find a favorite and use it any time of the day. Or night.
8. Bible books. When your children or grandchildren are small, reading children’s Bibles and faith-based stories with them is a wonderful way to strengthen their spirits and yours too.
Strengthen Your Spirit Applications
Decide this season to use those small measures of time in the day to sneak in some time with God.
Apply: Try any of our suggestions above and let us know how it’s going with a comment below. We’d love to hear from you! And for one more option, here’s a quick peek at our meme for our new Advent devotional coming soon called Re-Adventing Your Life. We’re excited about it and will be sending information soon. We’d love to have you join us!
Note: A few of the links in our post may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small amount of revenue if you purchase any of the items. Thank you for supporting our ministry.
0 Comments