🎶Read your Bible, pray every day, pray everyday, pray everyday, Read your Bible, pray every day, pray everyday, pray everyday, if you want to grow. 🎶

How long have we recited that song as kids growing up? A lot of us might have just chanted it without much thought to it, but in it lies great wisdom.

As Christians, we are called to live a holy life, a life after Christ, but many of us fall short. Be it peer pressure, contents we watch on all media platforms, books we read, the list goes on, but the truth is we have been given the power to live a holy life.

‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’ — Galatians 1:3–5 (NIV)

Now, I’m sure a number of you may be asking, how do I live a holy life? or how do I live above sin? Here are a few tips you can apply daily to answer those questions.

Tip 1 — Read your Bible & Pray everyday

This may sound obvious but “Read your Bible & Pray everyday”. If a number of us take a look at our routine just within the last few weeks / months, you would observe a pattern. If you are in the category of people that read their bible and pray daily, you would find yourself either having more restraint whenever sin comes crawling or not even being in the space where sin can exist.

If you happen to be on the other side of the divide, you most likely would have trouble controlling yourself.

‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.’ — Romans 12:2 (NIV)

The daily act of reading your bible and Praying (doesn’t have to be a long 10 hour prayer, as simple as committing your day to God’s hand) goes a long way in reshaping your orientation to a lot of things.

Tip 2 — Cut out the excesses.

As human beings, we all have emotional triggers, these are words, events, persons or experiences that when faced causes an emotional reaction. The same applies to our spiritual lives. There are various triggers in our life that we know would cause us to sin, and as such, we need to eliminate them.

A lot of us live our lives knowing well those triggers and feel that “I can always come back” or “I can always ask God for forgiveness”, but why do that?

The road to living a holy life is a long one and we keep advancing to that point, but if you are constantly rolling around in sin, it’s like you starting and stopping your car engine every few minutes whilst going on a Twelve (12) hours journey,

Here’s a quick example to help you understand:

We were in Sin, Point A, now as believers, we are in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), baptized in him (Galatians 3:27) and clothed with Him (Romans 13:14) and are heading towards Christ as we behold his glory (2 Corinthians 3:18) and Christ is being formed in you (Galatians 4:19) by living a holy life, Point B. Your journey starts when you give your life to Christ. The longer you spend in Christ, read your bible and pray daily, the more your momentum towards him and in turn, you lay aside every weight, and the sin which by default so easily beset you, and then you can run with patience the race that is set before you. Eventually, you start to forget your old nature and begin to embrace your Christ-like nature. The goal is to get so much momentum built up that if you do slip up, you are able to quickly recover and go back to God, which leads me to tip 3

Tip 3 — Have Godly Company.

One lie the devil tries to use is that “you are the only one going through whatever you are going through” — THAT’S A BIG LIE.

‘No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word — He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy].’ — 1 Corinthians 10:13 (AMP)

Just from reading the above scripture we can already acknowledge that it’s a lie, nobody’s sin is new on this earth, so don’t fall for that lie. The main reason behind the lie is to cut you out from the company of believers. It’s easier for him to prey on you if you are alone.

That said, have Godly friends, attend your church with hopes of building solid relationships, don’t always be in a haste to go home immediately after service, be accountable, in the true sense of the word, have a Pastor . Walk in Love.

All of these are ways that God can use to help keep you in check and also help you grow which leads to the final tip.

Tip 4 — You are a Child of God.

Never let the devil fool you into believing that God doesn’t love you. You have been redeemed by Christ and as such you are a child of God. Walk in that understanding and reality. As long as you can come into full understanding of that reality, you are well on your way to living a holy life.

‘Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].’ — 2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP)

So all in all, Read your bible daily to know your new identity and also know God more and more. Pray so that you can develop a relationship with God, remove anything that can cause you to go back to a life of sin, and replace them with things that would edify you.

Friends, living a holy life can be simple or hard, the choice is left to you.

P.S: choose the simple one, which is Christ.

God bless!

Oluwapelumi Olajide

IG: @pelumi.o