15 Minutes That Will Help You Grow in Christ.
I love running and it all began in middle school. My parents bought a membership to our local YMCA for a Christmas gift.
Many times, my transportation to the Y was my bike or running. As you can see in the picture, it wasn’t too from our home and a quite easy trip. The distance is comparable to a middle school cross country meet.
Was running 1.7 miles always easy? Not at all, but I worked up to it and my current normal runs are between 4-5 miles. Another half-marathon is coming later this year.
15 minutes was the key!
I think ten minutes is the key for a growing relationship with Jesus Christ also. If we can make a ten-minute decision, we will work up to our view of spiritual maturity.
Decide that God gets 15 minutes.
That’s right. I would not have started running as a young teen if there was not a built-in time so that I could become a better runner. We need to decide that God gets a built-in time so that you and I can grow in Christ. Personally, God gets time before anybody gets time. That small amount of time helps me be kind and compassionate to everybody else that needs time throughout the day. I think giving time in the morning would do the same for you. Maybe you need to decide that social media doesn’t get time before God gets time. Like running, growing in Christ takes mental work to believe that we can grow.
What do those fifteen minutes look like?
Read your Bible. It matters more that we begin reading than it does that we understand everything that we read. Understanding will come as we spend time with our Bibles and learn to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Work up to it, but don’t be discouraged and don’t give up on the fifteen minutes.
Here are three options to begin reading your Bible:
The gospel of John
The book of Acts
Think about what you read. Remember, the goal of our fifteen minutes is to grow in Christ.
A good way to think about what we read is to ask simple questions about the text. What do these verses say about God? This question helps us think, understand and listen. It’s okay we only find one answer each day. Throughout the year, we will have learned 365 things about God. What do these verses say about humanity? This question will help us listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance as we become more like Jesus.
As we think about what we read, there might be a verse that should be highlighted or underlined, depending on if you use a paper or digital Bible. Sometimes, I post a verse to social media so I will be reminded of it later.
Have a conversation with the Lord. All of us know another person that seems to pray better than we do. All of us think we need work in this area of our life. Remember, the goal of our fifteen minutes is to grow in Christ.
Here are four steps to talking with the Lord:
Declare that He is king for today. Give Him some praise.
Confess your sins. Mention them individually.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Make requests. All of us have something that we would like God to do. When we keep our requests at the end of our conversation, we are learning to be more like Christ and we are learning to depend on His grace for all that we ask Him for.
I think all of us have fifteen minutes that we can give to God. We can grow in Christ in 2025, but we need to make some decisions about our spiritual endurance.
YOU ARE LOVED!