Running head: INDIVIDUAL CHANGE PLAN 1

Individual Change Plan: Spending time with Jesus every day

Marissa K. Lambert

Azusa Pacific University

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Rationale for Change

From the moment that I became a Christian, I have struggled with spending time with

God every day. When things in my life are not going as I wish, that is when I spend a great deal

of time in the Bible. This idea does not make me proud of myself, Jesus is not a genie that I can

go to in tough times to get what I want. It is for this reason that I decided spending time with

God in his word was what I needed to change. I knew from the moment that I decided to do this

it was not going to be easy, I felt that all odds were stacked against me. I have been a Christian

for seventeen years and have yet to be successful in this endeavor. This time I knew it had to be

different, I had to go into the change with an open mind and a positive perspective. I could not

doubt myself from the minute I started as I did every time before. I believed that researching how

the Bible has changed other people’s lives would help me to be more likely to stay positive on

my perspective of change, I also thought that it would allow me to see how Christ has changed

other people’s lives and help me to stay encouraged to continue reading God’s Word and

spending that one on one time with him every day. Before I began on my journey to reading my

Bible every day and spending that much needed time with Jesus I did some research that I felt

would help me to stay accountable. In an article on the website “Lifeway”, the author Ken

Braddy talks about what steps to take to stay on track with spending time in devotion with Jesus

every day. The first two points are where and when you are going to spend that time in devotion,

I had decided those two things when I chose to begin this change in my life, I chose that I would

do my devotion every morning when I arrived at work, 7:30 and I would do my devotion at my

desk with my cup of coffee. I told my classmates and the ladies that I attend life group work with

that this was something that I wanted to work on and that I would like for them to hold me
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accountable for doing it. Skipping a day and then just giving up on the whole thing was

something that I was known for in the past, I was fearful that this would happen again. I

promised myself that I would not give myself any kind of excuse. I knew to go into this change,

that it was going to be difficult, I have struggled with following through with this concept my

whole Christian life. In my mind, I know that if I am successful that I will be so much better off

in my everyday life, but my head and satan continue to tell me that I can not be successful. Upon

starting the data tracking of my individual change I told myself that it was possible and even if I

fall short to not give up and continue to try.

Related Research

While reading my first research article on daily Bible reading, “4 Ways Daily Bible

Reading Will Change Your Life” the first paragraph talks about life in today’s society (2015).

That we are nothing but busy from the moment that we get out of bed in the morning until the

moment that we get back in bed at night. Samudre states that when we are moving in a fast pace

motion of life without reading God’s word we notice that we are in terrible moods, we just go

through the motions. If we are to live the life that Christ designed for us then we are to slow

down and take time to read the Bible, doing so will cause us to see the world in a new light one

of hope and optimism. Reading the Bible every morning helps to open up your eyes to things

God wants you to see. There are several ways that your life may change if you read your Bible

every day. You will gain knowledge and insight on how to deal with your problems by seeing

examples of the struggles that others went through in the Bible and how God helped them to

come through it.

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According to research from “5 Ways Daily Bible Reading Impacts Your Life” (2017) it is

discussed on how reading your Bible daily and consistently will affect your life. The first way

that you will be affected as a person is that you will grow to know God. God’s word, the Bible, is

forever and it is important to him. All the passages in the Bible are meant to teach you something

about God, the difficult ones are where God is deep and he tells you the most about his character.

Reading his Word every day will help you to grow in who he is and become even closer to him

and get to know him as a person. When you read God’s Word every day your mind becomes

renewed, as a human we drift away from what Christ wants in our lives, we become selfish,

immoral and fall into the patterns of the world. The Bible is like an anchor in our lives, it keeps

us grounded and reminds us to listen to what God wants us to do. Our minds are often

transformed by what is said in the Bible when we read it, that God is God and he knows what is

best. This transforms our minds and tells us that we are to know him better and listen to what he

wants from us. Needham states that often times people say that they do not have time to read the

Word, that there are other things in life that need to get done. She says that she argues that point

if you read the Bible and pray to God then you will be given fresh vision to see what truly

matters in the day to day world. Needham talks about that beginning to read God’s word, you

may not feel any difference right away, but the more that you read the more that you will notice

the change in your life. There are days that you will read God’s word, close it and feel exactly

the same as you did when you sat down. There will be other days that you will read the Bible and

feel a sense of renewal, something different you will have learned something profound that day

and life-changing. Those days that you feel are a waste, are nothing but a waste God is working

in you through the little things that he is teaching you. Spending time with God daily will help
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our vocabulary to grow in God, the more that we read the Bible the more we learn how God

speaks, the vocabulary that he uses. Over time, reading God’s Word we will grow in our

knowledge of what he is saying in day to day life because we will know exactly how he speaks.

We will know that this is coming from God and not from somewhere else. For example, there is

a situation that occurs with someone and a story from the Old Testament comes to your mind,

that is showing you how God himself would deal with what is going on. Seeing that story allows

you to engage with God and use the vocabulary that he has taught you in everyday life. Knowing

how God will deal with a situation and using his tactics to deal with that same situation that you

were placed in shows that you are growing a relationship with him, you know who he is and how

he would react to a given scenario.

Summary of Functional Behavioral Assessment Findings: A-B-C Analysis Information

Identification of Antecedent, Behavioral, and Consequence Variables

​ hroughout my whole life, like so many other believers, I have used the excuse that
Antecedents. T

I do not have time to read my Bible, it takes too much time and there are other things that are

more important to do than to spend daily time with the creator of the universe. I feel that the time

that I am given in a day is mine to use and that trying to read the Bible and grow close to Jesus

takes too much time.

I have a lack of motivation to even try and work on spending time in the Bible, reading a

devotional. I think that it is too hard and that I do not get immediate results by doing it the first

day then why should I continue to do it on a daily basis. It is too hard to wake up a half hour

earlier so that I can spend time with God in the morning, because I know that if I do not do that
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then I will make every excuse in the book to not spend any time that day with Jesus, because I

did not do it in the time that was set aside.

The biggest and most impactful antecedent that causes my behaviors of not spending time

in God’s Word on a daily basis, is that I do not follow-through on doing my devotion daily. I

allow things to get in the way and just give up, or just give myself excuses.

Behaviors. ​I procrastinate on completing what the plan that I set out for myself to read my Bible.

I set aside a time that I mean complete my Bible reading and I procrastinate by sleeping in,

playing on my phone or just laying in my bed talking myself into getting out of bed. The idea of

spending time with God should help me to get out of bed and spend time with Jesus, but allow

myself to talk myself out of doing it.

I allow myself to quit, I think that it is too hard and so often I have talked myself out of

reading God’s Word so many times then feel that I am too far behind and that it is a waste of

time to continue. I feel that because I have allowed myself to talk myself out of doing it a few

times what’s the point in continuing. I feel like a failure and that I should just give in to being a

failure so I choose to quit and give up.

I am inconsistent in reading every day, I let that time of being too busy and not having

time to complete my devotion dictate what I do. I too often talk myself out of doing a devotion

that I will have time later to complete it, I don’t do my devotion at the time that I always set. I do

not do my Bible reading every day, I do not stick to the plan and I just allow myself to spend less

and less time in God’s Word and allow myself to have a negative attitude toward spending time

with God.
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​ llowing myself to not spend the time that I need to with Jesus causes many
Consequences. A

problems in my life, I do not always know how I should make life’s decisions. When you spend

time in God’s Word you can more clearly see how you should make certain decisions. My life

lacks that presence of Christ in my big life decision making if I do not spend the time that I need

to with him.

I feel a big disconnect with Christ when I do not spend that daily time with getting to

know who he is. The more time I spend with him the more I know about his character and the

person that he is. I feel closer to him when I spend time with him getting to know who he is.

The less time that I spend with God, the more likely I will live a life that with a poor

perspective on life. When you spend time with Jesus you are more optimistic toward the word

and see that life is full of lessons and growing. When you do not spend that time that Christ calls

you to spend with him you are more likely to see life as always attacking you and you are

depressed when dealing with people and situations that are hard. This mindset can be much more

prominent when you spend less time with God and in his Word.

Goal and Behavioral Objectives

Goal: ​Marissa will consistently read her devotion every morning at 7:30 am in her

classroom at her desk for ten minutes with 90% accuracy over twenty-one days.

Behavioral Objective​ (Week 2): Marissa will read her devotion every morning in her

classroom for ten plus minutes a day with 80% accuracy by the second week of her new learned

behavior.
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Behavioral Objective ​(Week 3): Marissa will read her devotion every morning at 7:30 am

in her classroom for ten minutes a day with 85% accuracy by the third week of her new learned

behavior.

Intervention Schedule/Plan

To help myself to change my non-existent behavior of reading my Bible and spending

time with God, I decided that the first thing that I needed to do was give myself somewhere that

was meant to spend that time with him. I chose that I needed to arrive at work early to complete

my devotion, this was my decision because I needed to give myself somewhere that I would not

have distractions. I set an exact time that I needed to leave my house so that I would arrive to

work in time to complete my devotion without having any type of excuse. I started to carry my

devotion and Bible in my purse, this would cause me to look at it even at times that I was not

using it. This would remind to do it when I was supposed to. I printed a month calendar that I

would use to track the time that I actually spent doing my devotion. I wrote exactly what part of

which devotion I did as to not allow myself to go back and redo, while also keeping track which

part of the devotion I was currently on. Each Friday I would stop on my way to work, leaving a

little earlier and pick up coffee, this was my reward for working toward my goal and continuing

to have a positive attitude.

Results

According to the research done prior to beginning my Individual Change Plan, most of

the concerns that were talked about in those articles happened to me. In the beginning, I was

spending a great deal of time with God and in his word. I did not see and feel the change that I

thought should happen so I began to drift away from spending that time. My workload got more
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intense and I allowed that time I was spending with God to be the first thing that was cut out of

my life. The research that I did warn me about almost everything that happened to me, it also

said that doing spending that time God was difficult and that we are humans and fall short, but

just not to give up.

FIGURE 1: The graphs shows an increase of devotion behavior. Baseline was at a zero of devotion behavior and is at
An 3.25 average.

FIGURE 2: Graph shows the significant difference between each week behavior was observed.
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Conclusion

The biggest and most important thing that I learned from research that I did for my

Individual Change Plan, is that I am not the only one that struggles with this. My whole life I

have known that we should spend as much time in God’s word as possible and that when you do

good things come from it. Once I did research on and read more about it, I realized just how

important it really is. I know that there is nothing in this world that God wants them to spend

time with his children. We are all human and fall short of ever doing exactly what he wants us to

do, but reading and seeing that others struggle just as much as I do. I want to continue to do this

plan after this project, there is a small problem though now that I am in summer I do not have the

same place to do my devotion. I think that the change that I am going to make is to complete my

devotion still at my desk, but the desk that I have at home. There is nothing in this world that is

more important for me to do than to spend time with my creator. I know that it is difficult, but if

I stick with the plan and pray that Christ helps me to continue to do stick with the plan, I will be

able to do it. I will absolutely continue this plan after this report, I stopped tracking data and this

morning I spent time with Christ in his word learning who he wants me to be.
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References

Braddy, Ken. "How to Start Reading the Bible Every Day & Stick With It." ​How to Start

Reading the Bible Every Day & Stick With It.​ LifeWay, 05 Aug. 2016. Web. 27 May 2017.

www.lifeway.com

Needham, Kelly. "5 Ways Daily Bible Reading Impacts Your Life." ​Crosswalk.com.​

Salem Web Network, 11 Jan. 2017. Web. 28 May 2017. www.​crosswalk.com

Samudre, Neal. "4 Ways Daily Bible Reading Will Change Your Life." ​Guideposts​.

Guideposts, 19 Dec. 2016. Web. 27 May 2017. www.guideposts.org