Bible References:  Psalm 5:3; Psalm 16:11; Philippians 4:6; Psalm 119:105

The number-one thing you need to do every day to stay strong spiritually is spend time with God. And according to the following scripture, a good time for doing that is in the morning. David — a man after God’s own heart — said, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalm 5:3 KJV). 

David was a wise man who ruled as the king of Israel for 40 years, but he was not without problems. He knew that if he didn’t pull away and spend time with God first thing every morning, he wouldn’t make it. The time David spent with God every morning enabled him to keep looking up instead of looking down. It’s no wonder he said, “But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter of mine head” (Psalm 3:3). God is the “lifter of your head,” too, and when you spend time with Him in the morning, He will empower you to keep looking up. 

Begin Your Day With Prayer  

Prayer is an essential part of everyone’s personal time with the Lord. Before I raise my head from my pillow in the morning, I begin my day with prayer. I look up and welcome the presence of God into my life. Then I begin to pray for my wife, my children and their wives, my grandchildren, my ministry staff and partners, my church members, and my TV family. It may seem like this would take a long time, but it actually only takes a few minutes each day.  

I encourage you to make prayer a habit and not to wait until you are in a crisis to pray. You can pray about anything anytime and anywhere. If something is concerning you, it concerns God too. Begin to see prayer as a way of life that keeps you connected with your Creator who loves you and wants to be welcomed in every area of your life. 

Feed Your Spirit on God’s Word 

Time in God’s Word is another key ingredient to spending time with God every day. Many people ask, “What should I read?” If you want to receive God’s wisdom on how to build healthy relationships, the book of Proverbs is wonderful. If you need healing in your emotions and want to experience deeper intimacy in your relationship with God, read the Psalms. If you desire a deeper revelation of who Christ is, read the four gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Whatever part of Scripture you decide to dive into, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you what it means and how to apply it to your life. 

And don’t rush or get in a hurry. Take your time to read it, meditate on it, memorize it, and speak it. As you read, let the Word of God fill your eyes, flood your mind, and touch your emotions. It will become your guide in every decision you make and remain an anchor for your soul that brings stability in the midst of life’s storms. 

Friend, if you truly want to be strong in spirit, make a fresh commitment to begin spending time with God in the morning, every day. Be open to allowing Him to do something brand new in your life. As you begin to put Him first daily, you will be amazed at how things will start to improve.

Bible References:  2 Timothy 4:13; Proverbs 19:20; Romans 10:17

In addition to spending time with God every day, it is also very important to feed your spirit on other sources. The apostle Paul knew this to be true and practiced it until the very end of his life. From a Roman prison cell, he penned his final letter to his young apprentice, Timothy, and said, “The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13).

While Paul was in prison awaiting execution, he had time on his hands. Rather than squander it with frivolous activities or give place to worry and fear, he requested books to read and parchments to journal his thoughts and what he was learning. If Paul — the brilliant scholar of Old Testament Scripture and writer of nearly two thirds of the New Testament — knew he needed to feed his spirit on other sources and journal what God was showing him in order to stay healthy spiritually, we need to do the same.

There Are Many Resources Available to You

Reading good books daily will nourish your spirit. Like fertilizer helps to nourish a garden, reading nourishes your mind and spirit and helps you grow at a faster pace. If you’re not a reader, or you find it difficult to read, listen to good audiobooks. You can do this as you work around the house, exercise, or drive around town. You can literally turn your vehicle into a “university on wheels,” listening to good preaching and teaching via podcasts or CDs as you drive.

The Internet is also a great source of teaching. You can look up anointed teachers and subscribe to their channels. You’ll have instant access to their archives and be notified every time they post a new teaching. The method you use to take in fresh, informative material is not important — just find what format works for you and begin to feed your spirit.

As the Lord reveals things to you, take time to write them down in a journal. Writing helps you remember what is most important and enables you to grow spiritually like nothing else can. As you begin to write down the scriptures that come alive to you and the truths you are learning, your thinking will be refined, your beliefs will be established, and your faith will be strengthened.

Don’t try and survive today on the fumes of yesterday’s spiritual fuel. God has fresh fuel for you every day!

Bible References:  Proverbs 27:19; Psalm 139:23,24; Psalm 37:7-9

In addition to feeding your spirit on other resources and journaling every day, it is also imperative to spend some amount of time every day in quietness. Stop and think about it. Do you ever take time to be quiet? You need to — even if it is only for a minute or two. Times of quietness are like the white margins on a piece of paper. That blank space serves as a buffer to keep things in their place. Similarly, quietness helps avert the chaos and confusion of life without downtime. 

The Bible says in Proverbs 27:19, “As water answers face to face, so the heart of man to man” (MEV). One reason people get confused and come under attack is because they get so busy, they don’t have time in quietness, and, therefore, they are no longer in touch with themselves. In other words, they lose touch with what they believe, what they need, and what they feel. They just keep moving through life like a robot — which is exactly what happened to me many years ago before God helped me turn it around with these 7 Things To Do Every Day To Stay Spiritually Strong that I am sharing with you today. 

Deep contemplation is needed by all of us in order to stay in touch with our own hearts. That is why being quiet before the Lord is so valuable. When we are truly still, God allows us to see what is going on inside ourselves. 

Find Moments of Quietness in Your Day

You may be thinking, Where in the world can I go to be quiet? I’m trying to raise a house full of children, and my work never stops. If you don’t seem to have a place to be quiet, consider one of these options: 

• Go into the bathroom, shut the door and lock it. If someone knocks, tell them you’re taking care of business (which you are!) and that you’ll be out in a few minutes. Then close your eyes and be still for a few moments. 
• Sit in your closet with the lights off or sit in your car (with the engine off if you’re in the garage). 
• Take a brief walk alone. The exercise, as well as the fresh air and change of scenery, will do you good. 
• Get up before everyone else is awake and sit quietly by yourself. 

Seize any moment you can to quiet your mind and emotions and cease from all activities. You need this for your spiritual, mental, and emotional health. To begin, carve out just five minutes each day to be alone with God. In those special moments, allow the Spirit of God to infuse you with strength as you still yourself in His presence.

Bible References:  Psalm 54:4; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Galatians 6:2

The fourth thing to do every day to stay spiritually strong is spend time with others who strengthen you. God wants you to have meaningful relationships in your life. Even though some people will say, “I don’t need anybody else. I’ve got God, and He’s all I need,” that is simply not true. Look at what David said in Psalm 54:4: “Behold, God is mine helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.”

Did you catch the second part of that verse? It says, “…The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.” God is our Helper, but He is also working through the people He has placed in our lives to “uphold our souls.” 

Who in your life is upholding your soul? Men, you need other men, and women, you need other women in your life. You need people who will encourage you when you’re down and who will lovingly point out when you’re wrong. Forming associations like these is one of the smartest things you will ever do because power is released when we come together with others.  

Identify Key Relationships in Your Life 

Stop for a moment and think — who in your life comes closely alongside you to speak into your life? This is someone who has no hidden agenda — they simply desire to invest in you and pour into your soul because they genuinely love you and want you to succeed. Can you identify this person — or these people — in your life? 

These key relationships are people who watch over your soul. They talk with you, pray with you, and speak the Word over you. They hold you accountable for your attitudes and actions, and the relationship you have with them is reciprocal. In other words, what they provide for you, you provide for them. 

If you’re not sure who these people are in your life, pray and ask God to help you identify people you can trust and who will be available to you.  

Simple Steps for Sustaining Meaningful Relationships 

If you’re wondering, How in the world can I spend time every day with people who strengthen my soul? Is that even doable? The answer is yes, it’s doable. Once you have identified people you can trust, take the initiative and reach out to them. Ask them about being in a covenant relationship together on a daily basis, and then do your best to stay connected every day, which is not as difficult as you might think. 

You can stay connected daily by sending a text message, an email, or a phone call. The conversation or text doesn’t have to be long — it just needs to be truthful. If you’re doing well, let that other person know it. If you are discouraged, tell him or her. The truth of the matter is, the more you get to know each other, the more readily you will be able to detect when something is wrong. 

Don’t ever buy the lie that you can do life alone. You need people in your life — strong people — to help you do what God has called you to do. And you need to connect with them every day.

Bible References:  Psalm 119:164; Colossians 3:2,3; Psalm 103:1-22

The Bible tells us David, the king of Israel, had many enemies — both outside and inside his home. Despite this, he kept himself spiritually strong by putting into practice the fifth empowering daily habit, which is to take time to acknowledge God throughout the day. 

In Psalm 119:164, David said, “Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgements.” Although he was surrounded by injustice, David made it a point to praise God again and again. He learned to stop throughout the day and say things like, “Regardless of all the people scheming around me, God, You are still on the throne and in control of my life.” By stopping to acknowledge God’s justness, David reminded himself of God’s goodness and kept his mind and emotions under control. And as you do this each day, the same thing will happen for you. 

Take Time to Stop Throughout the Day

You may be thinking, How can I remember to stop seven times a day to acknowledge God? It’s actually not as hard as you may think. One of the easiest ways to do this is to set an alarm or reminder on your phone to go off throughout the day. Each time it sounds, take a moment to pause and simply declare what the Bible says about God in spite of your challenging situation or how you may feel at the moment. It can take less than a minute, and it’s easy to do. You can declare things like: 

• “God, You are all-powerful and nothing nor anyone is stronger than You (see First Chronicles 29:12). I will not be taken down by this situation.” 
• “God, You are all-knowing; You see everything going on in my life and in the entire world. You have delivered me from problems in the past, and You will deliver me from the things I’m currently facing” (see Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 37:17). 
• “God, my times and my life are in Your hands. No one can touch me or take me down as I rest and trust in You” (see Psalm 31:15; John 10:28-30). 

This purposeful recognition of God is what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). Your mind will never automatically begin focusing on eternal, heavenly things. You must purposefully harness your thoughts and bring them in to alignment with God’s Word. If you will learn to develop this practice every day, God’s peace will flood your mind and emotions, and your life will take on new meaning.

Bible References:  Psalm 19:12,13; Ephesians 5:15-17; Matthew 11:28-30

The sixth thing you need to do every day to stay spiritually strong is say no to the things you are not supposed to do. To understand this valuable truth, let’s go once more to the book of Psalms and the writings of David. He prayed to God saying, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me…” (Psalm 19:12,13). 

Notice David asked God in verse 13 to keep him from committing “presumptuous sins.” Essentially, this is the sin of assuming you are to do something without praying and asking God about it first — and I have experienced this firsthand. For years, I assumed that I was to take care of every need that came to my attention. My life became consumed by responsibilities God never intended me to have until I finally came to the realization that pride was keeping me from saying no to people. I wanted to be able to meet everyone’s needs and win their approval, but I nearly lost myself in the process. Sound familiar?

How Much Are You Doing?

Out of the seven things to do every day to stay spiritually strong, avoiding presumptuous sins was the hardest for me. But the truth is that 1) 85 percent of what we do, someone else can do; 2) ten percent of what we do, someone else can be trained to do; and 3) only about five percent of what we do can be done only by us. And that “five percent” is where we need to focus our efforts and energy. 

Sadly, many people aren’t doing the five percent that only they can do because they are too busy doing the 85 or the ten percent. They have said yes to many things, and their presumptuous sins are dominating their lives.

Friend, don’t feel obligated to financially give to every cause or serve on every project you hear about. Look around you. Who has God placed in your life to help you get things done? If you will learn to let go of trying to manage everything and stop saying yes to the things God is asking others to do, your life will be much more peaceful and productive. 

Before you commit to something, stop to pray and ask God what He wants you to do. As you learn to say no to what God has not called you to do, you will liberate others to freely flow in their gifts as well. 

In our next lesson, we will look at one more thing you need to do every day to stay spiritually strong.

Bible References:  Philippians 1:19; Ephesians 5:18; Acts 1:8; Acts 4:31

The seventh thing you need to do every day to stay spiritually strong is pray to be refilled with the Holy Spirit. Being continually filled with the Holy Spirit is an essential habit for believers to practice, and we see a clear example of this throughout the life of the apostle Paul. 

A Fresh Supply of the Spirit 

Paul had personally experienced the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit on many occasions. On one of those occasions, he was confined to a dark, dank prison cell in the city of Rome. From there he wrote to the Philippian believers and said, “For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:19). 

The word “supply” here is the Greek word epichorégia, and it describes an outrageously large contribution. This word was only used one other time in history. Paul knew about its original meaning and chose it for that reason. 

In the ancient world, there was once a huge choral group that had been preparing and training diligently to take their show on the road. And just when it was time for them to begin performing, the director of the group informed everyone that they were out of money, and the production came to a standstill. A very wealthy man heard about their situation and learned how discouraged and defeated the choral members felt. Moved with compassion, he came forward and made a huge contribution on behalf of the choir — which in Greek is the word epichorégia. He gave so much money to the group that when they received his contribution, it empowered them to take their show back on the road and perform, and they were re-energized.

Paul was telling us in Philippians 1:19 that when we’re in a dark, discouraging moment and it seems as though we’re totally depleted of strength and resources to go on, it is the perfect moment to be refilled with the Holy Spirit! Jesus was Paul’s wealthy benefactor, and He is our wealthy benefactor too! He stands ready, willing, and able to refill you with the fullness of His Spirit and to empower and re-energize you. That’s what you need, and it is yours for the asking. 

So to stay strong spiritually every day, pray to be refilled with the Holy Spirit. Whatever dark, difficult place you’re in, it’s no match for the power of Jesus! It’s time for you to say, “Lord Jesus, I need a new infilling of the Holy Spirit. I welcome You to be my wealthy benefactor who steps forward in this moment and provides me with an enormous spiritual contribution that picks me up and puts me back on the road to my destiny in You. I ask this in Your Name Jesus, Amen!”