10 daily habits that will help you connect with God: Make your faith your own

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well" Psalm 139:14 (English Standard Version).

Howdy! You are SO PRECIOUS to the Creator! So precious that when He made you in His image, He made you fearfully and wonderfully; unique.

Jess, how do you know we are precious though? (YES! I love sharing scripture with y'all!) If we look further down in Psalm 139, in verse 17, David writes, "How precious are your thoughts about me, O God," (New Living Translation). You are PRECIOUS in the sight of the Lord! That's how He thinks about you, and because you are so precious to Him, He pursues a personal relationship with you.

Why does this matter? Well, over the past four weeks, we've discussed the essential elements of spending time with God: setting intentional time to pray, read your bible and worship. And while knowing God requires these things (remember Hosea 6:6, God wants us to know Him), there is no cookie cutter way to spend your time together.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: the God of the Universe created you in His image, which means He knows you. Okay, Jess... duh.

But no, let me show you:

Right off the bat in Psalm 139, David tells us, "O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar" (v.1-2 English Standard Version). The Lord knows your thoughts and He discerns them, which means that He perceives them with wisdom and understands you i.e. He knows how to best connect with you. Don't miss that-- He knows how best to connect with you, hence pursues a personal relationship with you.

The point: God pursues a relationship with you that is unique between the two of you.

This leads me to this week's habit:

Daily habit #5: Make your faith your own

As we've talked about in the previous weeks, a relationship is a two way street, so just as much as God knows how to understand and best connect with us, we need to learn how we best connect with God.

But Jess, why is this important?

Get to where you can see Jesus

The first thing that comes to mind is Timothy Ateek, pastor of Breakaway at Texas A&M (whoop!) saying, "Following Jesus begins with seeing Jesus, which simply means ordering your life around being aware of the presence of Jesus in everything. So get to where you can see Jesus." (uh, hi new instagram bio!)

Simply put, making your faith your own is important because it is how you will get to see Jesus everyday so that you can know Him. But even further, we must get to where you can see Jesus daily to know how to follow Him.

Unique Purpose

Let's look at some scripture shall we?

• '"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."' Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version)

• "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect," Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation)

• "In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly." Romans 12:6-8 (New Living Translation)

Woah, Jess. That's a lot of scripture all at once! Great, let me break it down for you. In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord tells us that He has a plan for each of our lives and Paul follows that up in Romans 12 by telling us that God has gifted each of us differently to fulfill the purpose, or plan, He has given us. Paul also tells us that God wants to transform us and pleads with us to allow God to do that by changing the way we think and act. But, how does God plan to transform us? Through spending time with Him in His Word. By doing this, we will learn God's will for us.

Stirring Our Affections

Now, another way and my favorite way to explain the importance of personalizing our faith is that love is not a chore. What? At first glance of the scriptures we just looked at, it can seem kind of intense, like God is trying to force feed us knowledge of Him and His plans. But like I've mentioned in past blog posts, spending time with Jesus is not meant to be done grudgingly. It is not meant to be chore.

Making your time with Jesus unique to you will stir your affections for God, and what was once a discipline will become a delight.

Again, at Breakaway, Timothy Ateek said (I'm obsessed with this sermon if you can't tell), "spiritual sight means that your heart sees Jesus in a transformative way. It means you saw Jesus and were captivated by His glory, which is the supreme goodness of Jesus," (paraphrased).

Y'ALL! By spending time with Jesus, you will fall in love with Jesus, and making your faith your own will help you do this. *mic drop* I could end the blog post right there. BUT I want to tell y'all about how I make my faith my own and maybe give you some inspiration.

Journals

She's a journal-er! *shocks no one* But for real, I have three journals that I use to connect with God: my prayer journal (which you've already seen in this blog series), my dear future husband journal, and my "He speaks" journal.

Prayer journal: you already know the drill (but

if you don't, go back and read that daily habit post)! I use this journal to write my praises, prayers, and reflection of the outcomes of those prayers.

Dear future husband journal: I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory: this is the space where I pray for my future husband (that's healthy, I promise). But it's also the space where I process the different seasons God brings me through in singleness (i.e. crushes, broken hearts, confidence, identity).

"He speaks" journal: This is probably my coolest journal because it was birthed by accident. During the quarantine/shut down of 2020, I began journaling the lessons God was teaching me that I wanted to remember most. Well, a few months in, I realized that what I wanted to remember most were the moments where the Holy Spirit spoke to me directly. Thus, the journal was named "He Speaks."

Bible Journaling

Again, no one is shocked. It is often recommended that you have a notebook with you during your quiet times to jot down verses that stuck out to you, the revelation the passage brought you, etc. I do that same thing... in the margins of my bible. Oh, and I use two bibles to compare the translations for deeper understanding of each verse/passage. Too much? I don't think so.

Books and Devotionals

Lastly, I am always reading a good faith-based book or devotional in addition to scripture. It carries the same effect as listening to a sermon on Sunday morning-- it offers you a different perspective on God's Word. Here are a few of my favorites:

On the left, we have "New Morning Mercies" by: Paul David Trip. 10/10 would recommend if you want to get a little Jesus fix before bed! On the right (my favorite book EVER), we have "Single. Dating. Engaged. Married." by: Ben Stuart. Not much to say here. If you're in one of these stages of life-- READ THIS BOOK (preferably on the beach)!

Call to Action

There you have it! I hope you are feeling refreshed and inspired after reading this post! And although this habit is not specific, it was the most fun to write and it is the most fun to apply to your life, trust me. ;) Be encouraged, friends! God pursues you uniquely and personal, so if you haven't already, find your groove! Get creative and get where you can best see Jesus everyday, and then come back and tell me everything you've learned about God's will for you. I REALLY want to know!

XOXO,

Jess :)