Do you have a desire to grow?

Is there a list of things you feel you should be doing in order to grow personally and in relationship with God?

I am constantly reminded by sermons, articles and books about what I’m supposed to be doing but I often think to myself, “when am I supposed to actually do that?”

I don’t want to ignore the reality of the demands on your time.  Because if you’ve even made it this far in this article, I have to assume you want real tools and you want to make this work.  So, how do you do that? 

How do you make the time for something as important as your personal and spiritual growth?

I really want to give you a three step action plan for creating more time in your life but we all have the same amount of hours and minutes. So, I’m not about to drop something earth-shattering on you. I’m going to help you think it through and set the foundation.

Our time is typically dominated by the urgent.  What I mean by ‘the urgent’ is the tasks that have to be done now.

For example, garbage pickup happens in my neighborhood on Thursdays every week.  If I want to have my garbage picked up, I have the trash bins by the street on Wednesday evening. A portion of my time is allotted every Wednesday evening to making sure the garbage in my house is collected and outside in order to be picked up on Thursday.  Every Wednesday evening it is urgent for the trash to be gathered and the bins by the street because if they aren’t there on Thursday, the trash will not be picked up.  And let’s be honest, nobody wants trash hanging around their house.  It’s a urgent that the garbage makes it to the street.

If I’m honest, my days are filled with one task after another like that.  There is always something that needs to be completed now—from grocery shopping to school pickups and drop-offs to responding to emails.  The list of demands is never ending. There is always, always, always, something else that needs to be done. And most of these urgent tasks are also important.  It is important for us to have groceries and it is important that I don’t leave my child abandoned at school and it is important that the garbage is collected on Thursday.  

But there are some things that are important that don’t feel urgent until they do.  Your personal spiritual growth can easily be put on the shelf for another day when there aren’t so many demands and you have time to concentrate on it. Because the urgent will always yell louder than the important.  And the important waits quietly for you to let it transform everything about the urgent.  

When you think about what is most important not just to you but to God, do you find your priorities are aligned with God’s? Are there adjustments that need to be made?

You can’t wait for extra time to present itself, you have to seek it out–you have to fight for it.  For me, I set an appointment in my calendar for personal and spiritual growth.  I have a time set aside everyday when I am reading or journaling or doing something to grow.  It almost always requires me to get out of the bed a little earlier in the morning or to shut off my phone or close out my social media.  I can make the time but I have plan it into my schedule and routine and then say no to something else.

When you decide to take ownership of your spiritual growth and lead yourself as a follower of Jesus (which sounds really contradictory if you think about it), you have to move your spiritual growth into the urgent category.

Intentional growth happens when you make it a priority. When you grow in relationship with Jesus every other task and demand will be affected because you will be powered by the Holy Spirit at work in you.

What are tools do you use to lead yourself in your own personal growth? What motivates you to put spiritual growth into the urgent category?