3 Principles That Can Improve Your Routine.
Principle 1: The Secret to Success is found in your daily routine.
There are many areas of your life that routines are necessary if you want to be successful. In each of these areas daily disciplines are needed to get you to your desired goal.
For instance – exercising or working out one time, cannot make you healthy.
You must work out consistently to achieve your goal.
More examples:
Taking your wife on one date doesn’t make you a romantic.
Praying and worshipping on Sunday doesn’t make you spiritual.
Skipping dessert one time doesn’t make you loose weight.
Buying your child one toy doesn’t make you a good parent.
Having one cup of coffee doesn’t make you a good friend.
LOVE is spelled TIME! Relationships take time.
Principle 2: Time Blocking
Time Blocking helps us create a routine.
Time blocking is about carving out a certain amount of time for something that is important to you. Here are some examples:
I want to read books, so I commit this 30 minutes everyday as my reading time.
I want to work out, so I go to the gym 3 days a week at 6pm.
I want to spend time with my family – so this night of the week is family night – no TV’s or cell phones allowed. We are going to eat, play games and talk.
Principle 3: First things First (It’s about prioritizing)
Matthew 6:33-34
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
How do I seek God first in my life?
1. The FIRST part of your DAY
A. Morning Prayers
1. King David was a morning person.
Psalms 5:3
My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.
2. Mark 1:35 says Jesus prayed each morning.
3. Praying in the morning, doesn’t just cover your day with prayer, but it puts you in a spiritual mindset before you start your day.
4. I have a list of things I pray about and declare over my day. It’s a bit of a routine, but it’s not the only time I pray. It is however, the things I am believing God for and therefore I say them out loud every morning before I start my day.
B. Morning Devotions
1. A devotion can be done in many ways:
a. Read your Bible
b. Read a chapter in a book
c. Listen to a podcast
d. Watch Christian TV
e. Play worship songs and worship while you get ready.
f. One of my favorite devotion books is called, Jesus Calling.
g. How many of you have discovered “The Bible Experience?”
D. Speaking Life Over Your Day
This is a list of things you are speaking over your life:
Nothing is going to happen today that God and I can’t handle.
I will not walk in fear, but I will walk in faith.
I am healthy in body, soul and spirit.
I am debt free in Jesus name and blessings are flowing to me.
I am not easily offended, but I am mature in Christ.
I do not harbor offenses, but I practice forgiveness.
I declare Isaiah 54:13, All of my children will be taught by the Lord.
I declare that I will experience God’s favor and God’s faithfulness.
I am smart, I am capable, I am an over comer.
I am confident, I am blessed and I am a winner.
E. Speaking Blessings Over Your Family
2. The FIRST part of your WEEK. The first day of the week is Sunday.
How many of you still believe this commandment?
Exodus 20:8-11
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
1. The rhythm of life needs to be reset. You need at least one day where you don’t work. God declared it as a day of worship.
2. A day of worship needs to be more than a routine, it needs to be a sacred practice in our lives.
3. People who do not make WORSHIP a high priority in the weekly routine often deal with their children choosing not to go to church
anymore after they leave home.
3. The first part of your FINANCES
A. Exodus 23:19
The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.
1. First fruits is about putting God first in your personal finances.
2. We need money to live.
3. God wants us to create a place of faith through the test of giving
4. Practicing the giving of First Fruits brings a blessing on your house.
Deuteronomy 26:1–4 ; 13
