12 Best Things To Change Your Life In 2023, Part 2

Make smart changes in 2023 that will make positive changes in your life.

Today is part two of a three-part series about making SPIRITUALLY healthy changes in our lives this year. The best things we can do for our overall well-being are spiritual. Let’s get started!

You might want to read Part 1 of this series HERE. 

We ended up last week by talking about Prayer and how keeping an ongoing, real and active conversation with our Father is so good for us!

I’m going to expand this thought and say we should all be praying for one thing specifically…

PRAY FOR REVIVAL

Revival is a matter of the heart! The word revival means to rekindle something that is almost expired. Like a tiny spark or a little burning ember that is almost spent, once fanned and fed it can turn into a roaring, hot and huge fire.

Revival is the renewing of our fervor and love for the Lord God and a saving and obedient relationship with Him. It is when we see God’s glory (His worth and who He is) and exactly who we are! It is seeing our sin and the stricken and grave state of our lives, of our nation, and even our world. It is being clearly able to see our need for a Savior. 

Revival is not something WE do for it is a wondrous act of the Holy Spirit. But we can have an active part in it through prayer. We should be praying with everything in us that the Holy Spirit would reveal truth to us in a big and overwhelming way.

As individuals and as a corporate nation we need revival. We need a good reality check on who we are and the deep condition of sin we live in. Once we see this and can openly and with heartfelt fervor confess those sins we can then joyously turn back to God.

However, these are highly unpopular and socially unacceptable things to talk about these days. Reasons we need revival all the more! 

Psalm 80 is about revival.

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. Psalm 80:3, 19

Revival can turn around whole nations and set them on the right path. We need as many souls to stand in the gap with arms raised to our good God pleading for Him to revive us and we need to ask with thankful and expectant hearts.

In ancient times watchtowers were built into the protective walls of the city. They were high places where guards would watch for both good and bad news.

A coming enemy could be seen before it descended on a city to attack. Or a bearer of good news from the king could be spotted and the city made ready to receive him.

I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Psalm 130:6

We need to not only have to pray for revival but we should be in a watchtower mentality waiting for signs of the good news of it from our King. Let God know you are anxiously waiting for Him!

I have seen revival and it is miraculous! It sweeps through and seeps into everything in its path. Pray for revival and watch diligently for it!

GIVE

Giving of your tithes (money), talents, and time to make sure God’s work here on earth is expanding His kingdom. Let’s not get too busy and tied up in our day-to-day life and ignore the most important things.

Those things of eternal value are the things that promote God’s kingdom and are the only works we will carry into eternity. If we desire and believe that we will live forever in heaven with God why not start living like that on earth today? Be the hands and heart of Jesus to others. 

START YOUR DAY WITH GOD

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

When I open my eyes every day I say this verse. It’s really out of context but I think it fits the way I should acknowledge my day.

For me, it reminds me that TODAY, right now, this minute is an extreme and lavishly given gift from God. It means God has blessings stored up for me in this day and He is with me should trouble present itself. 

I can rejoice in good and bad because I know that my Father is with me and Jesus has promised to never leave or forsake me and the Holy Spirit indwells me. I also am very aware of my sojourner status in this world and know well that I am in the best company!

My heart can look happily and peacefully upon the day!

Speaking out and believing scripture is a wonderful way to start a day. I have several scriptures I cling to daily.

Find scriptures that your life needs and speak it out over your day. Let God know that you believe Him and you wish to be transformed by His word.

Here are a few of my favorite scripture to pray over my life…

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you]. Romans 12:1-2

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4: 1-6

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. Jere 29:11

For we are his workmanship (meaning poem as in poem to the world), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

 END YOUR DAY WITH GOD

By the time my day is over I usually roll into bed completely spent and very tired! How about you? 

One thing I am working on is a little time with my Father talking over my day and taking it into account. Really being aware of how I lived for Christ that day, confessing my sins, thanking God for the ways I could see Him in my life, and praising Him for who He is!

As I child I learned the discipline of bedtime prayers but have lost the desire to make them a part of my day-to-day life. 

I want my bedtime prayers to take on a more personal and reflective demeanor. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to end our wakefulness by telling God how much you love Him? I would want that to be the last thing on my lips before I drift off to sleep.

These spiritually healthy habits are very rudimentary. They are basic. But they are real and deep and life-changing!

Let me ask you a question. Sort of a gut check. How is your relationship with the God of EVERYTHING? And if you don’t mind can I ask you, how would you like your relationship to be?

The true answer to these just might give you the desire to start or maintain some good spiritual habits that can last a lifetime… and beyond!

This is the scripture verse I am learning this week…

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24