Advice for How to be More Intentional With God Throughout Your Day
“But this is how I’ve always done things.”
Ah, the familiar. We know our routines, we know what we like, we know what works for us.
We also tend to model what we know. Unless you’ve thrown off the chains of a broken childhood, you most likely have habits and daily routines you picked up from your parents or guardians during your growing years.
And there’s nothing wrong at the core of sticking with the familiar. Praise God He doesn’t look with disdain on our ordinary lives.
But are we so comfortable with the familiar, with the normal, with the routine, that we might squirm at the thought of working on being more intentional with God throughout our days?
More doesn’t need to mean crazy or stressful or life-changing. It’s simply the idea that God doesn’t desire us to stay the same, doing the same things day in and day out simply because we’re comfortable in the familiar.

Learning how to be more intentional means pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones for the purpose of looking more like Jesus each day. It means setting aside certain ways of doing things because it’s time to pursue Jesus more intentionally.
Because Jesus welcomes us as we are, but He doesn’t desire us to stay that way. He desires us to grow more like Him, transforming our daily actions into intentional ones for His glory.
3 Tips for How to be More Intentional With God Throughout Your Day
Being more intentional does not need to stir up our routines to the point of stress or a life reconstruction — unless, of course, we know Jesus is asking us for a life reconstruction. If you desire to grow in your intentionality with God throughout your day, here are three places to start.
1. Learn something new
Our brains hold the capacity for learning more than we’ll ever actually learn. Which means we’re never too old to learn new tricks. Being more intentional throughout our routines can include learning something new.
Learning something new helps us pursue Jesus more throughout our routines because it reminds us of our Creator. The hands that formed us provided us with untapped skills. When we choose to peel back the familiar and dip into those skills, we catch glimpses of the character of God.
We see His creativity. We acknowledge His omnipotence. We remember He is God and we are His creation. Limited by sin-streaked humanity, yet overflowing with grace-filled potential.
Learning something new might feel small, but nothing is truly small when we glorify our Father in the process.
2. Experience something new
When we learn something new, we choose action as a reminder of God’s creativity. We physically or mentally stretch ourselves intentionally. But when we experience something new, we set aside our desires to perform and prove. It allows us to simply take in different aspects of God’s character.
We focus too often on doing too much. Setting aside the check lists for a new experience opens our eyes to how small we are and how gloriously talented our God is. Recognizing our smallness does not mean debasing ourselves, but rather growing our understanding and fear of all God has done, all He is capable of doing.
So instead of continuing on in the same routine, try experiencing something new now and then. Allow your senses to fill with the wonder of God’s creation as you let go of the need for constant results. Sometimes, the best moments come from the ones where we just show up and experience.
3. Focus on something new
How often we desire to look more like Christ and how often we pursue looking more like Christ sadly seem quite different most days. Not allowing our ordinary to feel actually ordinary means we must put action behind our desires.
One way we can pursue looking more like Christ would be praying through the fruit of the Spirit. Seek conviction for His characteristics that you struggle seeing in your daily life. Once you’ve chosen one, pursue it. Pray daily for eyes to see the Holy Spirit at work throughout your day. Pray for opportunities to reveal that character trait in your own words and actions.
Focusing on actual characteristics of Jesus helps put flesh and bones around what it means to look more like Him and be more intentional with Him.
Ready to be more intentional?
Jesus doesn’t ask every one of us every day to accomplish something grand and out of our ordinary. We shouldn’t live in fear that He is waiting to strike our routines simply because we enjoy our lives.
But we should live every day desiring more of Him. Some days that might look like going above and beyond the comfort of our routines. Other days that might mean carrying on with exactly the same thing as yesterday, knowing this is what He has for us this day.
Either way, let us not cling so tightly to the normal that we forget to live intentionally for Him each and every day.
Get your free Fruit of the Spirit journal here and start praying through how God shows up in your everyday! Learn more here!
