What are the habits that highly effective born again believers do every day? What makes us highly efficient believers? What should we do so that when people see us, they can say: “here is a true believer?”
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Highly effective believers are grateful all the time.
Here is one of the most important habits of highly effective believers. It is actually God’s will that we are grateful every day.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 – “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Thanksgiving is the response of the believer not only for what God is doing today, but also for what he did for us all by sending his son Jesus to the cross. Although not every thing is doing good in our lives, we are grateful to the Lord. Certainly we are not grateful for the things He has not done, but for those He has done. For example, I cannot thank God for the evil that happens to me, because He does not send evil, because God is good. The text clarifies that it is not for all things, but in all things we give thanks to the Lord. In other words, whatever the circumstances we face, let us thank the Lord, not for the situation, but for the grace he has given us; for he answers and the solutions that he will continue to give for every situation in our lives.
We also note that the praise that the believer must give to God should come from a heart of gratitude. Gratitude is the cradle of worship. Teach your children to be filled with gratitude from an early age, and they will become great worshipers of the Lord.
Gratitude is the cradle of worship. (TIMO: this goes in a box)
Therefore, be always thankful in good times and bad times. This gratitude will put you in a position to receive the blessings of God. Paul also said that we need to let our requests known to God with thanksgiving, namely with gratitude (Philippians 4:6).
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Highly effective believers rejoice continually
It is true that it is not always easy, but joy is one of the biggest signs of faith inside of us. It is also the will of God that we rejoice.
Philippians 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say: rejoice!”
It is a sign that distinguishes the highly effective believers from other believers. They are joyful. Continually. The problem of many Christians is that they believe that joy is an emotion. Of course, it is in one sense. But joy is also the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which is the fruit of our spirit regenerated by the blood of Jesus; is a force that comes from our salvation. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Why not develop the joy of the Lord this year?
1 Thes. 5:16 – “Rejoice always.”
Let the joy of the Lord be your strength every day. It will transport you to new horizons and give you the victory. Joy is a highly effective habit that distinguish the believers from other Christians.
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Highly effective believers pray every day
1 Thes. 5:17 – “pray without ceasing”
Prayer is not only what we do every morning for a few minutes. Paul exhorts believers to pray continually; that is, to keep in touch with the heavenly father.
It is like your mobile phone that is always connected to the Internet, whenever there is a new mail, your phone alerts you with a notification. Similarly, even after you finished your morning prayer time, your spirit remains “connected” with the heavenly father, and whenever He needs to share something to you, He sends you a notification: an urgency in your heart, a perception, and you know that you have to immediately return to the secret place and ask the father what He wants you to do.
Prayer is not just asking, but it is also hearing the father, hear what He wants from you. Stay connected throughout the day, ready to listen and obey what He has to say to you.
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Highly effective believers meditate the word every day
When I was a child, we used to sing: “Read your Bible, pray every day if you want to grow.” It was a beautiful song, but the problem is that nowhere in the Bible is written to read it every day; however, it is written to “meditate” upon it day and night.
Reading is very good but the Lord is not as much concerned about our reading then He is about our meditating His Word.
Joshua 1:8 – “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
This is one of the habits of highly effective believers. They are not happy with just reading the Bible in a year. They want to meditate it continually. In Hebrew, the word translated ‘meditate’ means: talking to yourself, mutter. Meditating on the word of God every day means thinking about it all day long, then continually coming back to it inside of us, just like the cow when she cuds the grass – indeed, in Hebrew the word ‘meditate’ also brings the idea of ruminating. Take a Bible verse every day, and ‘chew’ it; thinking about it all day long or during the whole week until it produces the “milk of the word” in you …
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Highly effective believers attend their local church
A very effective believer has developed the habit of attending his local church. God has placed us in the Church (1 Cor 24:18). And that’s where we have to grow our Christian life. We are called to be planted in God’s Church.
Did you know that the Bible is full of exhortations that we cannot fulfill alone? These are the famous ‘each other’ verses. There are at least 59 verses. That is, more than one a week. Have you ever tried to love one another alone (John 15:17)? It does not work.
No, a Christian cannot be very effective if he is not rooted primarily in his local church, where he receives the teaching of the Apostles, where there is the breaking of the bread, but also where he is an agent of change, of encouragement and blessing.
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Highly effective believers live for the Kingdom of God
Highly effective believers are experts in service. They Serve God. They work for and with God. They also serve others. They know that the Lord has prepared good works for them to perform:
Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
When God saved us, he also expected that we would become useful to his Kingdom. Highly effective believers live with God’s Kingdom consciousness. That is what matters to them. This is the priority in their lives. Everything they do is for his Kingdom.
It’s not just their job, their family, their friends. All these things are legitimate and good, but they go beyond this. Highly effective believers want to live for God, and do his will.
A very effective Christian is someone who has realized that his purpose is not only to be what he does: lawyer, plumber, baker, doctor, teacher, etc. But to do what he is: a child of God, chosen by the Lord to do good works, which God prepared in advance for him.
Start putting your life under the rulership of God and his Kingdom. Ask him every day what He wants you to do; the people He wants you to see; the good He wants you to do around you. You can make the difference around you, when you develop the habit to do good the works that He prepared in advance for you to do; because you live with God’s Kingdom Mentality.
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Highly effective believers walk in love
Ephesians 5:2 – “walk in love”
A very effective Christian has developed the habit of walking in love. Despite what others do to him, he does not give evil for evil, but overcomes evil with good (Rom. 12.21). He has decided – and this is really a choice – to walk in love at all costs. He knows that in the Kingdom of God, it is not the law of the jungle that is prevalent, but the law of love.
He chose to live in a way that we do owe no one anything except to love one another because who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)
What is it like to walk in love? I think the best definition is this: “walk as Jesus would have walked in the same circumstances and under the same conditions and with the same mitigating factors; always considering the will and the nature of God in us.”
A highly effective believer is a person that does not operate in the life style he had before meeting Jesus, but someone who walks with a lifestyle that is renewed with the love of God in his heart.
Putting into practice these seven habits, you will become not only a highly effective believer, but you will also blossom because you will reflect who you truly are in Christ; the true nature of Christ will be manifested in you.
Make it a marching order for the coming months. Develop these seven habits, and you’ll see the world around you change because you will have truly changed. The rest will follow. Other things will change, because you have decided to take charge of your life.
