Whether you’re reading this the first of the year or in the middle of summer, I’m so thankful you’re here and I want you to know you’ve been prayed for! Setting spiritual goals for your life takes intention and a deep desire to grow in your faith.
If your heart’s desire is to grow in your spiritual walk and you’re looking for tips and encouragement in growing to know the Lord, this is for you.
He delights in our pursuit of Him and is worthy to be made our single most important priority. His power is at work within you as a believer in Jesus Christ and to grow in Him, we must daily pursue Him.
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Setting Spiritual Goals – 10 Ideas and Encouragement
I’m listing ideas and suggestions for setting spiritual goals upfront and below you will find more details and encouragement for each one. Most importantly and well beyond anything I suggest, pray and seek God’s direction for your life and how you can grow to know Him more and more.
The heart and purpose behind anything I am sharing is to grow to know God personally and live for Him alone.
- Read the Bible daily.
- Be in the habit of praying.
- Memorize scripture.
- Learn to depend upon the Lord.
- Love God and Love others.
- Commit to a biblical church.
- Seek to praise and worship God.
- Consider your input.
- Be passionate about the gospel.
- Share.
1. Read the bible daily.
To grow in our spiritual walk, we must be in our bibles each day. God has given us His living Word and it’s where we can grow to know Him best! If this is something that is brand new to you, download the bible app YouVersion so you can always access it on your phone or tablet. It offers multiple bible reading plans to guide you.
For additional bible reading plans, here are some awesome free resources to get you started:
Free Bible Reading Plan – from McLean Bible Chruch
Truth for Life Resources – from Alistair Beggs’ Truth for Life
You can also check out this post of mine for topical Free Bible Reading Plans.
Another option is to use a chronological bible that offerings readings for each day throughout the year. This one is my favorite: The One Year Chronological Bible Expressions. It’s beautiful and has room for note-taking on each page and artfully drawn bible verses that you can color and decorate if you choose to.
Other ideas include reading a Proverb a day – there are 31 chapters so it works perfectly for a month. Or reading a Psalm a day. Or start reading a little bit each day from the book of John in the New Testament and work your way through the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Get a translation of the bible you understand if you struggle reading the one you have. I enjoy the English Standard Version (ESV), the NIV (New International Version), and the New Living Translation (NLT). Check out this post on the best bible versions for beginners if you need help finding a bible to understand! Research the type of bible you are interested in and then go to a store to hold and flip through bible’s you have narrowed down before making your purchase.
2. Start the habit of praying.
Lamenations 3:41 tells us, “Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” The verse show us our prayers go to the God of heaven! The Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth! Prayer brings us into communion with our Living God and reminds us that He gives divine power.
Prayer teaches us our unworthiness and yet by His Son, we can confidently approach the throne of God!
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
What an incredible verse! We’ve been given the privilege to approach God in prayer and He offers His mercy and grace to help us when we come to Him. The sad reality is we often come to Him as a last resort when He should be where we go first. As we set aside time with Him in prayer, our relationship with Him will grow more and more for us to learn to continually approach Him as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 commands.
3. Memorize Scripture.
Getting into God’s Word and reading scripture is invaluable. Memorizing scripture arms us with His truth so we can carry it with us throughout the day and a powerful way to strengthen our spiritual life.
Psalm 119:11 tells us, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Storing up His word takes intentionality and diligence.
As we read His word daily, and meditate on what He is communicating, we begin to grow deeper roots in truth. Memorizing scripture concentrates on our mind on God. The world tries to capture on our mind in so many different areas but scripture memorization battles the world and fills us up with truth!
Related: Foundational Bible Memory Verses To Learn
4. Learn to depend upon the Lord.
We’re given divine wealth in God and the best way to receive from Him is to learn to depend on Him.
This goes against our nature, our reliance on self, and what the world tries to teach us. When we confess our empitiness, we give God room to fill us! There is no better place to be than poor in spirit and empty in self.
As we grow to constantly depend on the Lord and trust Him for all things, then are we strong in Him. Mighty in Him. Lifted up in Him.
Related: Practical Ways to Depend on God
5. Love God and Love Others.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:36-39
I should actually make this #1. Pursue God so that you are transformed by His love. There is no greater love than experiencing the heart of Jesus and when we are captured by His heart for us, everything else flows from it.
God came in flesh to show us His love. He came to love sinners and all that did not/do not deserve him. He IS love and the more we grow to understand His love for us, the more we can’t help but grow in His love and live for Him alone!
Related: Captured by the Compassion of Jesus
6. Commit to a biblical church.
We need community. The body of believers are meant to worship together, disciple one another, grow in biblical sound doctrine, fellowship together, and break bread together.
If you do not have a home church, commit to looking for one. It’s out there. I know this can be extremely difficult to put yourself out there when you’re searching for something new but the bible makes it clear we are meant to gather together regularly.
Every single believer makes up the church and we all need each other to grow as a body. We need fuel and nourishment to walk out our faith. We need prayer coverage, accountability, service, and a place to worship together.
Mark Dever has a great book titled 9 Marks of a Healthy Church if you need direction on what to look for in a church.
Our children need to know the importance and value of regularly attending church together and serving one another. This world is way too hard to live without it.
I am praying for YOU and others to not lose heart in finding a church home.
Father, you know the heart of the person desiring to find a church home right now. Encourage them to not give up hope and to continue searching until they have found the place you have perfectly planned for them. Bring people into their lives to encourage their faith. Help them to know the value and importance your Church is and how we each need each other to love and strengthen each other in your name. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
7. Glorify God.
Glorifying God is honoring Him with our life. In all we do, we are meant to bring glory to God.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
Colossians 3 teaches us about our new life in Christ and “putting on the new self”. This is only possible because our new self has been raised up with Christ. With our new life in Christ, we are to now live in a manner pleasing to the Lord.
Christ makes this possible for us! We are called to live holy lives consistent with our new identity in Christ! When we stumble – as we will daily do – confess and go back to the truth that we are forgiven and in the beloved. Cleansed by His blood we can dust ourselves off and live the life He alone made possible for us!
8. Consider your input.
What information are you allowing to saturate your mind? Is it biblical? Is it true? Is it edifying? Are you encouraged by it?
We’re bombarded with information on our phones, tvs, social media, billboards, ads, news, etc. How is this information shaping us?
Good or bad, we are influenced by what we take in and it’s imperative we diligently guard against what we allow to influence our minds.
There are so many great resources to saturate our mind with truth and encouragement!
Praise and Worship Music:
CityAlight or Sovereign Grace Music
- Books on Faith: Gentle and Lowly by Dane Orland
- Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin
- Prayer: Valley of Vision
- Marriage: You and Me Forever by Francis Chan
- Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
- The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller (on my to-do list)
- Motherhood: The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson
- Parenting: Parenting by Paul David Tripp (so good!!)
9. Be passionate about the gospel.
The gospel…of first importance… 1 Corinthians 15:1,3
I love this quote by C.J. Mahoney from The Cross Centered Life: “If there’s anything in life that we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.”
Aside from the bible and great teaching, the Holy Spirit has also used a book called A Gospel Primer for Christians to be instrumental in my life for growing to be passionate about the gospel.
I’m continually blown away by God’s love for me!
10. Share.
Share what you’ve been given – wisdom, love, hope, peace from Jesus Christ alone.
Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Daily share what the Lord is showing you and teaching you about Himself. He is meant to be shared!
Be one (a disciple) and make one.
Growing in the Lord
I hope this encourages you as you pursue the Lord and grow in Him. He worth everything!
Want to remember this? Post these Spiritual Goals 10 Ideas & Encouragement to your favorite Pinterest board!
I love how you start with praise and acknowledgment of the desire to grow spiritually. And I love you word of caution about lofty goals. This is a wonderful list. In fact, I’ll be reading the Bible chronologically this year with the support and accountability of Heather Hart’s FB group. I know I won’t be perfect but I’ll keep plugging along! Thanks so much for linking up with Grace and Truth this week!
Thank you so much for your encouragement and thoughtful comment. I am thrilled for your adventure in reading the bible chronologically this year! I know it will be deeply impactful and God will use it in so many ways in your life and those you encounter!
This is such a great post on spiritual goals! I love that you mentioned getting hung up because I do that all the time! I am really working on focusing on setting (and keeping) goals this year (spiritual and otherwise) and I am saving this post because you offer such great information! I tend to “wing it” a lot and I really need to reign myself in and focus and scheduling my time and setting goals are going to be a big focus for me in 2020! Thanks so much for linking up @worthbeyondrubies
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful comment, Diane! It encourages me to know this was helpful for you! I hope 2020 continues to draw you closer to God! I’m thankful for WorthBeyondRubies.
Thank you for sharing this information. It will be very helpful.