Here’s a few concepts that I think have been very important in my faith journey:
- Be intentional. If you aren’t trying to get somewhere, you’re going no where!
- Give yourself (and others) grace. You’re not perfect and neither is anyone else you will encounter. You will mess up. You will stumble. You will fall. And sometimes you will fail. It’s important to not let this stop you from picking yourself up, praying for strength, and continuing on the journey.
- PRAY, PRAY, PRAY. It’s imperative that you pray. Your prayers don’t needs to be super grandiose. They don’t need to be eloquent. They don’t need to make sense or sound amazing to anyone other than you. Be real with God and with yourself. Pour your heart out. Remember he already knows, you just need to say it or ask for it.
- Find a spiritual mentor. It could be your pastor. It could be a friend. Anyone that you feel comfortable speaking with and learning from. This should definitely be someone that you respect and look up to as a person who is further along their journey than you are. Remember to give them grace too, don’t put them on a pedestal, they are human.
- Read scripture daily. It could be a verse or a whole chapter. Read what you can. If you can find a bible reading plan, great! If you want to wing it, start in the New Testament. Read one of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Acts is a great follow up to those. Don’t feel like you have to read it all as fast as you can. Absorb it, meditate on it, really think about what you’ve read. And if you’ve never read the Bible, the first few books in the Old Testament can be kind of tough to read, so give yourself some grace.
- Do a devotion. Don’t try to overload yourself with 10 devotions each day. Start with 1. Build the habit of doing devotions daily. There are some great apps out there that can get you going. Again, really try to absorb what you’ve read and meditate on it. Don’t just check it off your list. Give yourself a little bit of time to spend on it each day.
- Learn all you can about who Jesus IS. Yes, he is still alive and still king! Learn about Jesus’ personality and see how he really shook things up while he was here on earth. See the love that he had for everyone, his sense of humor, his compassion and empathy, his friendship. The more you understand WHO Jesus is, the easier it is to build a relationship with Him.
- Put aside religion. Faith and religion are not the same thing. To a certain extent, there is nothing wrong with religion. However, it can put a haze over what Jesus taught and prevent you from fully being able to develop a relationship. There are certain religious practices, ideologies, dogmas, etc that keep us from feeling like we can have a relationship with Jesus. I will get more in depth on this topic soon.
- Don’t be afraid to share your faith. It can be challenging to talk to people about your faith. There are a lot of people who are very much against it. You may be in a work environment where it is strongly frowned upon. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do so in a non offensive manner. Don’t force your beliefs on anyone. If they’re aren’t cool with it, that’s ok you don’t have to “harass” them. But be willing to share what you believe if someone would like to hear it.
- Be prepared for twists and turns. There isn’t a road in the world that will be straight for the entirety of a long journey. There will be twists and turns. There will be detours. Not everything will go the way that you planned it. You have to remember God has plans that are better than yours. He will guide you around some detours and road construction and take you on some different paths. Enjoy them. He usually has some surprises when he redirects you.
Journey Through Faith 