How To Consistently Have A Strong Relationship With God.

Having a strong, intimate relationship with God without ever falling short is something that all Christians long for but so few of us (none of us) achieve. Why is that? Well, in case you were not aware, we are human beings. Now you know why. We are stupid, selfish humans. So why would I title this post How To Consistently Have A Strong Relationship With God if I can't even do that? That's a simple answer. Even though I am not perfect at this, I still know how to be.

This year, my one and only New Year resolution is to have better self-discipline. That's it! I want to do a better job of staying consistent in all areas of my life. One of those areas (the main area) is my walk with and for God. This means having self-discipline in showing up to talk to God more, to study and read His Word more, and to obey Him with all the little daily things He wants me to do in this current season of my life. That being said, as someone who has struggled for the majority of my life with being consistent, God has made it incredibly clear to me how to stay consistent. Repentance. To constantly seek God and never distance ourselves from Him, we must always be repenting. Repenting means that we are acknowledging what sin we have committed and relying on God's strength to turn away from that sin once and for all. This is not something that we are called to do one time and then we are good to go. No, this is a mindset and act that is to be done daily. Every single time we think an unwholesome thought, we repent. Every time we say something hateful to someone, we repent. Every time we listen to that sinful music, we repent. Whatever we do that does not align with God's principles is something we should be repenting of. This isn't easy, but it is so worth it.

When we do this, we are knocking Satan away from us, and we are glorifying God in the process. When we repent, we are also knocking down every single wall between us and God. These "walls" are built when we sin. Every time we sin, the walls get bigger and stronger, but when we repent and talk to God about that sin, those walls get knocked down.

One thing that also needs to be done in this process of repentance is practical habit setting. What I mean by this is we need to build practical habits to do daily to guard our hearts from sinning against God again. For example, if someone struggles with laziness due to being on his phone too often, he should put in place a practical step to ensure that he stops picking up his phone as much. This could look like plugging in his phone in a different room and putting it on silent for a certain time block during the day.

Think about sins that you struggle with often, pick one of them, pray about that sin, repent, and write down practical steps that you need to start implementing today to stop committing that sin.

Let's make 2025 our year of consistency and self-discipline. The growth that will come from this will surpass any result we can imagine.

If writing helps you think through things as it does me, then check out my Repentance Journaling Prompts here. Don't forget to share with someone you love. :)