Lifestyle Hacks For Christian Professionals

Christianity is a way of life, a journey of becoming more like Christ. As Christian professionals, If we are honest with ourselves, we’d realize that so many times we keep at a spot for so long… no growth. We keep doing the same old things over and over. In fact, some days we are worse off than the stagnant spot we have been at for so long.

Many factors may be responsible for this. But I realized that some little lifestyle changes can go a long way in easing off some of the struggles we face as Christian professionals. I’ll get started already.

1. Sleep well.

Sleep is the major reason why some believers aren’t growing. Not sleeping well is bad. This is very common among professionals due to workload, traffic, and all the rest. Have you tried browsing in a bad area and the network signal on your phone is on edge? That’s how it is when you don’t sleep well. You’ll be on edge throughout the day and this isn’t healthy for you as a believer. It becomes harder for you to work in love, you are distracted and also you aren’t as sensitive to God’s Spirit as you ought to be.

There’s also the group of people that sleep way too much. If you are in this category, my sisters and brothers, wake up!

The beginning of my deliverance journey from sleep began when someone told me If I slept for 12 hours every day, When I am 50 years old, I have actually been awake for just 25 years. That thing shook me. Try to set a fixed amount of hours you should sleep daily. 7-8 hours is recommended for young adults. Try not to go beyond that.  If you want to get better in your walk with God, get adequate rest.

2. Food, food, food!

Checking what you eat can also help you on this journey. When you eat too much, you feel lazy and you can’t effectively do the things you ought to as a believer. Too much food makes some other people like me too happy, you just are hyperactive and you begin to misbehave around – talking too much and those kinds of things. In fact, I think that gluttony is deeper than just food, It is deeply rooted in greed and lack of contentment which is ungodly.

What you eat also matters. I know for professionals, junk food is what is readily available. Go the extra mile for good food. Remember, your body is the temple of God. This scripture isn’t just for abstinence from pre-marital sex. It means that we honour God in our body, treat your body right – eat right. God has trusted you with this body, show that you are a faithful steward and don’t just pack your body with junk food steadily.

Discipline yourself. Eat healthily, cut out the sugary stuff. Fast more often. Fasting helps put your body under check. At least, once a week, go without food. When you fast, you pass information to your flesh that you can put it under subjection any day and anytime. Fasting also gives room to train your Spirit man.

3. Exercise regularly.

Apart from looking good, exercising helps you feel good. You just feel so light and you aren’t so burdened by stress and worries. When you feel better, you can tune in more to the Spirit.  It doesn’t have to be yoga, squats (squats remind me of frog jump from secondary school, I dread it) and all those serious gym stuff.

Feel free to spice it up as you may not have the time for gym sessions. You can go on prayer walks: to and from the workplace. If you are always driving, you could take fifteen minutes walk in the evenings just praying in the Holy Ghost. That’s you killing two birds with a stone – keeping fit and edifying your spirit man. You can also decide to use the elevators at work rather than the stairs. Move around a lot more at work – all of this is to avoid a sedentary lifestyle.

4. Smile more.

The way some people are always so stuck up and serious, I just wonder. Joy is an ingredient of a believer – It’s a fruit of the Spirit – It’s how we live our lives – It is in our DNA. Doesn’t matter whether you feel happy or not, joy must stem out. If you don’t feel it, you stir it up. We don’t walk by feelings anyways.

One time I was so stressed with the things I was working on and I wasn’t feeling joy. But I knew I had joy somewhere inside of me so I decided to stir it up. I just started smiling, I first looked at myself in the mirror, it was looking weird because at that point it was forced. I adjusted the smile until I was sure it wasn’t going to scare people away and then I started smiling to everyone and anyone. I’ll just smile and look away – then I started to feel the joy. As I smiled at people, they responded in love and soon after, my heart was bubbling with joy.

So brothers smile.. sisters smile. Even when work is killing and traffic is jamming all over the place, smile! Our joy isn’t from here. It’s not only when Pastor says “Gloryyyyy!” in church that you rejoice, rejoice always. Smiling also helps ease up stress and you get to look younger when you smile often, so smile.

5. Steady your heart on God.

This doesn’t seem like a lifestyle hack yeah? Lol.. just follow me. For Christian professionals, a lot of things call out to you. You want to do so well at work so that you get promoted and stuff, your family is calling to you, pressure from friends and your social circle… All these things call out to you and if you aren’t careful, You’d go a whole week without bible study or prayers. You have to intentionally and consciously steady your heart in God. Make God the base of it all. Set reminders that it’s God first. From your busy schedule, pray. 2 to 3 minutes of praying in the Spirit at your desk, while you climb the stairs, while you move from place to place goes a long way. By the time you do these short prayers say one in every hour, you are very conscious of your Spirit man.

Meditation is also very key. Listen to sermons, edifying songs, Christian radio. Rest in God no matter how much the pressure is. Just intentionally fill your heart with God and God and God even amidst all the distraction.

I have finally come to the end of my long epistle, I hope you get the point – life would call out to you on different levels as a professional but as a Christian professional, in the middle of all these, make arrangements to stay in tune. Staying in tune with God’s Spirit per time is more important than anything else in this world.

Let me quickly add this. When the bible spoke of Job, He spoke of all He had and I personally imagine Job be a very busy man in the business world and also at home. He had so many possessions and achievements. But when God was to speak concerning Job, see what He said: Job 1^{8  “…}And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?…”

Before God, amidst your busyness and possessions, it is your heart and how you have walked with Him that matters.

Read also; 7 Tips To Maximize 24 Hours