Faithful Routines

Do you wake up at the same time everyday? How about do the same the things in the same order each day; wash your face before you brush your teeth or vice versa? Routines and habits are common elements of our lives. We tend to find order within the mundane of life. We typically end up, often without realizing it, developing a habit for our lives. Whether its the order of our morning essentials, stopping at the same coffee shop at a regular time, doing the same start-of-work items in a specific order; all of these little things become instinctive routines to us- things we do in a specific order often without even seeming to think about the order we do them- unless something forces a change in them.

We all have these little things in our day, but how much of your routine includes God? How much of your day includes deepening your faith? For many of us the unfortunate reality is that elements of our faith fall to the wayside and become "if I get to it" tasks during our days. I want us to challenge that tendency. We who have been called to faith in Christ cannot have our faith be a background player in our lives. We need to make it a clear element of our lives. We need to be careful here, though, to not push people away; our lives should be a reflection of our humble faith, lives that demonstrate a changed heart that makes those around us stop and ask why we're so different (these moments are the perfect opportunities to introduce the Gospel to people).

Over the past several weeks, I've begun to be more deliberate about including reading both the Bible (more deliberately) and extra-biblical (primarily Erickson's Christian Theology) texts into my daily routine. One of the benefits of this has been that I have found myself identifying areas where God is working in my life as well as noticing His working in the world around me. For me, I've noticed myself being challenged to work on my contentment as well as Him challenging me to be both more open and assertive in expressing my wants and desires. I've also been more receptive in truly seeing the beauty in His creation all around me.

Developing a routine that includes spending time in the Word and time studying is extremely important in growing in our sanctification. It draws us closer to God and gives us time to reflect on what he is doing in our lives and the lives of those around. It gives us greater clarity and awareness of His work. The closer we get to God the more He is able to work in our life, and for us to be able to reflect Him working in our life. The more we grow closer to God, the better witness we'll be to the people around us. It also gives us time to formulate questions to ask our pastors for clarification, which in turn allows us to be better able to share with others why we believe what we do. Ultimately, we are called to imitate Christ and that means acting as he does, and the only way to know how He does means to study and see what He said and how he behaved- this is only done by studying His word.