You get to the end of a long day, and realize you haven’t prayed once. Not to mention the Bible reading plan you set out to tackle at the beginning of the year could use a good dusting off…

When life is too busy, your time and attention gets pulled in a hundred different directions. And then trying to feed your faith starts to feel like another thing on an endless list of impossible demands. 

We feel you. Because we find ourselves there, too. And no, we haven’t missed the irony that we work for an organization where it’s our job to encourage other people in their faith—just keepin’ it real. None of us are immune to the trap of busyness—to competing demands, and hurried lives.  

Ultimately, we know that our faith is what should fuel us to do the things we do. It should be what gives us strength. But in practice, we often try to do it all apart from God, and that’s when we feel dry and depleted. 

So here’s the thing: you need help, and so do we. Especially for those seasons when busyness doesn’t feel optional, but growing in your faith is vital. So we reached out to some practical faith experts—YOU—to get advice on how to feed our faith when life gets busy. Here’s what we found. 

Feed Your Faith in Snack-sized Bites

If we had to summarize the best advice we got, it’d be something like this: feed your faith in snack-sized bites. By feeding our faith in small ways throughout the day, it works with the time we have, allows us to get creative with how we connect with God, and ultimately, it sets us up to be growing in our faith consistently, even when life is too busy. 

Here are our five favorite tips, inspired by you.

1. Feed your faith by scattering little reminders

What’s a verse you’re trying to memorize? Or a truth from Scripture you’ve been inspired by recently? Write it down. Put the reminder somewhere you know you’re gonna see it. Maybe on a specific wall. On the mirror. In your car or fridge. Make it your phone’s lock screen. Set up a reminder on your phone so that the verse pops up during the day. The possibilities are endless, and you shared lots of them! 

Want to take this idea a step further? When you see the reminder, read it out loud and let yourself hear it. Oh, and if you’re anything like us, make sure to switch up the reminder and/or the location because after some time, it’s easy to glaze over it. 

Put it into Practice: Pick one verse, or a specific truth from Scripture that you want to focus on in the next week. Post a picture of your physical little reminder, and tag us (@reclaim.today)!

2. Feed your faith with pause and pray moments

There’s immense power in simply pausing, and we loved to see so many of you point that out. When you park your car at work, before walking in, take a few intentional breaths, say a quick prayer for your day, or set your mind on a specific goal.

Throughout your day, let stress be a trigger for you to pause and pray. When you’re faced with a stressful situation, a frustrating email, or too many demands, pause to ask God to help you process and respond.

Challenge: For the rest of today, look for an opportunity to put this into practice. Then, before bed tonight, reflect back on those moments, and see if you can identify a common cause of the moments that felt most stressful to you.

3. Feed your faith by absorbing the small miracles

This one is really simple, but it can be so powerful. What’s a little miracle you witness on the regular? Hugs and laughs from your little people? A reliably warm welcome home embrace from a loving spouse or friend? The creative vibes that start flowing when you get a few musicians in a room together to create?

When these miracles happen, take a little time to indulge in them—they’re gifts from God! Let these little miracles take your mind off the stressors and “to do”s—even if only for a minute. It might even adjust your mindset and give you a more peaceful perspective.

Challenge: We want to hear what one of your “small miracles” are that you’re thankful for today. Share a post on your Instagram and tag us (@reclaim.today)!

4. Feed your faith during commute time

Make the most of your commute time. This was a great tip we saw lots of you share. Turn a traffic jam into a live prayer and praise sesh (no shame!). Find a life-giving and encouraging podcast to play on your way to work. Set up an intentional music playlist to help you get centered. Or, keep the radio off, and pray out loud while you drive.

Ultimately, commuting might not be anybody’s favorite way to spend our precious minutes, but when we just gotta do it, there’s a lot of potential to make it meaningful! 

Challenge: How do you spend your commute time? Have you had the same routine for a while? Consider switching it up this week.

5. Feed your faith through a group prayer text

When your life is too busy and you’re looking to feed your faith, sometimes the best thing we can do is turn to others. Praise God for faithful friends, right? Consider organizing a group prayer text. Or just start a habit of exchanging prayer texts with one friend. 

By keeping up with a prayer friend(s) consistently, it’ll be easier to ask for prayer when you need the support in small ways—and quickly. No need to wait for prayer request time at small group each week, or to overthink whether your request matters enough. When you’re especially busy or stressed, shoot a quick text to your people, and invite them to pray with and for you.

Challenge: Don’t feel like you have the energy or resources to organize a text prayer group today? Start by simply asking God this week to put someone on your mind that might be a good prayer partner for you. And when he speaks, listen (and ask them)!

Thanks for getting creative, and partnering with us as we think through what it looks like to feed your faith when life is too busy. And, thanks for going a step beyond, “just read the Bible and everything will be better” (because sometimes it’s really hard to actually connect with God, even when we force ourselves to “do” the right things). 

We’ve loved sharing what we found, and hope it helps you as much as it’s encouraged us!