essay about my faith

Photo Essay: What My Faith Means to Me

BU students, faculty, and staff reflect on the intimate role religion, prayer, and meditation play in their daily life

Cydney scott, bu today staff.

Boston University began as a Methodist seminary, the Newbury Biblical Institute, in Newbury, Vt., in 1839. And since its beginnings in Boston in 1869 as Boston University, it has been open to people of all sexes and all religions, many who carve out time from their daily studies and work to find moments to pray, meditate, and reflect. 

BU photographer Cydney Scott has long wanted to capture the many ways members of the BU community express their faith. 

“One of the great things about being a photographer is that I have the privilege of stepping into aspects of life that are unfamiliar to me,” Scott says. “Religious faith is one of them. Religion and faith give people solace, guidance, and a sense of community, among other things.” 

Last fall BU Today invited members of the BU community to reach out to Scott directly, and within days, she had heard from people who identified as Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Mormon, and more. She photographed almost 20 people in their homes, at work, and out of doors as they practiced their respective faith traditions. The COVID pandemic made it impossible to photograph most of them in their churches, temples, mosques, and other places of worship, so instead, Scott sought to capture each one in ways that reflect how they pray, worship, and integrate their faith into their daily lives. Each participant also wrote a short essay describing what their faith means to them. 

The resulting photos are deeply personal and intimate, speaking to the breadth and diversity of the BU community and the myriad ways people observe and celebrate faith in their lives.

Emily Mantz (Sargent’21,’23), Christian

“There are many ways that I practice my faith on a daily basis. I try not to keep my faith in a box, and instead try to integrate it into everything I do. I was raised by not one but two pastors, so growing up saying grace before eating has always been a part of my day. During my undergraduate years I was heavily involved with BU’s Inner Strength Gospel Choir. While I’m no longer quite so involved, I still find singing and music to be one of the best ways for me to connect with the Lord. I attend church every Sunday and volunteer at the nursery there as well. Finally, I pray and read my Bible every day, twice a day. This allows me to dig a bit deeper into the teachings of God as well as talk to Him about my day, things I’m struggling with and things (or people) who need to be prayed for.

“To me, my faith is my lifeline. I have probably gone to church every Sunday since the day I was born, and while church itself is a huge part of my life, my personal relationship with Jesus is really what has gotten me through these past five years of college. Whenever I’m struggling, I know I can talk to Him and He will always be there with me. Not to mention the friends He has placed in my life to help me along the way. As Christians, we are really called to live out our faith so that other people can get to know Jesus through us. I try to exude that by upholding values of kindness, forgiveness, and patience in all aspects of my life, no matter how hard it may be.”

Aimee Mein (COM’22), Buddhist

“My faith is the lens through which I see the world. My perspective on life completely shifted after studying Buddhism and incorporating Buddhist practices into my everyday experiences. Every moment has become an opportunity for mindfulness, things that used to cause me anxiety are calmed by a newfound belief system. Even my struggles with mental health have improved. Most importantly, my faith means a sense of peace with the universe and compassion for all beings.”

Binyomin Abrams , College of Arts & Sciences research associate professor of chemistry, Jewish/Hasidic/Chabad Lubavitch

“I’m Jewish, specifically a Lubavitcher (Chabad) chossid. Jewish faith is synonymous with Jewish practice—doing acts of goodness and kindness (mitzvahs) and working towards refining the world around us. One of the most special and meaningful things that we do is to learn Torah, which brings meaning to my faith through intellectual, spiritual, and practical guidance on how to improve ourselves and transform the world for the better.”

Martha Schick (STH’22), United Church of Christ

“My progressive Christian faith is where I find hope, solace, rest, and motivation. In our world, which is both broken and beautiful, the story of Jesus Christ and the stories of the ancestors of our faith are where I can look to make sense of things. I often come away with more questions than answers, but my church community welcomes my wrestling and makes my faith stronger because of it. In studying to become a pastor, I am both empowered to bring my full self to ministry and humbled to remember that the Holy Spirit is working through me. As a queer woman pursuing ordination, I also know that my very presence in the leadership of a church is a symbol and example of God’s love and calling for all people.”

Muhammad Zaman , College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering and of materials science and engineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Muslim

“I am a practicing Muslim and consider my faith as a driver for my work. In particular, the emphasis of Islam on humanity, social justice, welfare, and human dignity has a profound effect on my work to provide equitable access to healthcare among refugees, migrants, stateless persons, and the forcibly displaced all around the world.”

Chloe McLaughlin (STH’22), United Methodist Church

“Faith has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up attending church, going to youth group, and spending my summers at church camp. At the end of this semester, I will be lucky enough to have two degrees that focus on religion and this faith that is so integral to who I am. In the long run, I think I have always been drawn to faith, specifically Christian faith, because I believe it informs my sincere commitment to justice, equity, and mercy. Over the last three years, as I have worshiped at Marsh Chapel, I have seen kindred commitments in action. The chaplains and staff are genuine, courageous, and willing conversation partners on difficult topics in the church and the world. I have been mentored, encouraged, and challenged by the staff and community at Marsh, and I am so grateful.”

Mich’lene Davis (SSW’25), Christian/Pentecostal

“‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen’ (Hebrews 11:1). The wind blows, no one can see it, but you feel it and know that it is there. We practice a blind faith every single day of our lives without consciously knowing that we are doing it. We have ‘faith’ that the chair we sit in will support our weight and not send us tumbling to the floor in an embarrassing manner. We place ‘faith’ in our vehicles that they will get us from point A to point B without having some catastrophic failure or breakdown that will leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere. As a Christian, my faith is my lifeline, like an umbilical cord to an unborn child. Everything I believe about God and His one and only son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is what feeds my mind, soul, and spirit. I have faith to believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross via crucifixion, but rose again three days later, and because of this I no longer will have to face an eternal death, but will instead have eternal life with Him in heaven. I have personally benefited from and have witnessed answered prayers that had no natural explanation for how they were answered. My daily life consists of me worshiping and praising Him through the music I listen to and sing. Reading and meditating on His Word (the Bible) helps me to remember to whom I belong and helps me to strive to be a better person each day.”

Caitlyn Wise (Sargent’23), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

“Faith gives me the confidence to live courageously each day. Through prayer and scripture study, the knowledge and power I receive from my faith allows me to look for ways to serve and learn from those around me. Whether it is me praying for guidance in my studies or me applying principles of kindness and compassion in the BU community, my faith gives me a source of strength in my everyday life.”

Adit Mehta (CAS’22), Jainism

“I was brought up in a Jain household and always had it around me, but in college, separated from my parents, I’ve explored my faith and consciously made decisions to follow ahimsa (nonviolence), aparigraha (non-possessiveness), and anekantavada (multiplicity of viewpoints), the three As of Jainism. In college I’ve also been able to find a community among members of Jains in Voice and Action , the BU Jain club, and the Young Jains of America . My faith means making active choices to reduce harm to others and the environment. It’s less about praying and more about reflecting on my actions and choices during Samayik, 48 minutes of meditation. My faith makes it possible for me to understand myself and how I affect and can help others.”

Zowie Rico (CAS’23), Lunar Witchcraft

“My spirituality is something very new for me. I started my journey in July of 2020, during the latter half of quarantine. Before that, I wasn’t really a spiritual person. Now, however, I use my spirituality to guide me through many aspects of my life. It’s a way for me to connect with my inner self and actively work to become one with the energies around me. It’s also helped me with my anxiety, as it’s given me a lot of coping mechanisms to use throughout my life, like grounding and meditation. 

“My spirituality is a part of many aspects of my daily life. It manifests itself in everything from making my smoothie in the mornings to doing affirmations while stirring my coffee to using my intuition for many of my decisions each day. I am so happy that I’ve been able to incorporate my practice into my daily life because it helps center me each day and provides comfort during hard times.”

Jewel Cash, BU Summer Term program manager, Christian

“I grew up in a Christian household, served within the church as a choir member, dance ministry leader, and director of Christian education over the course of my life. My faith has always been an important part of my life. As a child I remember my mother sending me to church by myself to ensure my relationship with God would grow during a season in which she was sick and could not go herself. During college it was important for me to go back to attend youth bible studies so I could understand more about the Bible. As a professional, I remember interviewing at BU, being asked, ‘What do you do to manage stress?’ and surprisingly responding without hesitation ‘Pray. In overwhelming times I may take a deep breath, evaluate the situation, and pray to recenter myself. So if you see me step away to the restroom for a longer time, I may be praying so I can come back ready to tackle the problem as my best self.’ 

“My religious faith means a lot to me. That there is purpose in my being, that I do not walk alone through life, that I have a community of believers who I can fellowship with, that I am to be a positive example to others of what my God calls me to be, and in short, that all that I have is all that I need to be my best self and live life fully and abundantly, for I am blessed and favored in a special way. It means I am not perfect, but as I pray, praise, and push, I am progressing. It means, as the Bible says, I have been given a spirit of power, love, and sound mind, and with these three things I can make a difference in the world and encourage others to do the same.”

Ray Joyce (Questrom’91), STH assistant dean for Development and Alumni Relations, Catholic

“My faith really means everything to me. It’s how I live through each day, the good and the bad. In the current political climate, I find it’s essential to keep centered. For example, when I hear people who are eligible, but refuse to get the COVID vaccine to protect themselves and others, a part of me wants to say: ‘Then let them die,’ but I know that’s wrong. As it happens, today’s reading in the Bible from 1 Corinthians 3:16 includes the words ‘…and the Spirit of God dwells in you.’ As my daily reflection from Terence Hegarty (editor of Living with Christ) states ‘…not only does the Spirit of God dwell in us , but in everyone …’ So I hold onto that and try to understand where someone might be coming from to reach such a conclusion as to refuse a potentially lifesaving vaccination. I act where I can to help others and our planet while also waiting with anticipation for better days ahead with a renewed sense of hope.”

Mary Choe (CAS’24), Baptist

“Hebrews 11 states: ‘Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ For me, faith is not some distant feeling, but a series of beliefs that lead to concrete actions. My beliefs are based on the words of life, light, and love I read in the Bible. Much like life itself, faith is hardly easy or linear. I have times of doubt, because admittedly, it’s difficult to go against the flow of campus life. And since God is invisible, I often get distracted by the instant gratification of the here and now. I’m realizing more and more, however, that even my faith is less about me than about the object of my faith—which is not a concept or an idea, but God embodied in flesh, Jesus Christ. My relationship with Jesus is what makes my faith dynamic, filled with joys and sorrows, highs and lows, times of peace and serenity, along with fears, failures, and more than a little drama. But I take comfort in knowing I’m not on this journey alone. I have a cloud of witnesses walking before me and with me and many more examples of faith who’ve already walked this pilgrim journey. Living by faith is not a loud, showy display, but an assured, hopeful way of being. My hope is that I, too, can finish the journey of faith well and experience victory in Jesus Christ!”

Swati Gupta (SDM’23), Hindu

“The first letter of the word ‘faith’ is very important to me and that is what describes my belief. For me, ‘f’ stands for flaw. In our sacred book, Bhagwad Geeta , it has been suggested that being human also means being flawed. Lord Krishna says that humans will make mistakes because that is a part of their Karma. A person should not be merely judged by their act, but by the intent behind that act. For example, if a lie is said with an intent of harming someone, it is equivalent to 100 lies, but if that one lie saved an innocent person’s life, then that lie is equivalent to 100 truths. I am not a religious person who goes to the temple every week or worships every day, because religion to me is not an act of worship, but an act of becoming a better person. My faith teaches me to make mistakes, be judgmental, have emotions of anger, but at the same time learn from those mistakes and accept if any wrongdoing was done. Self-introspection is an enormous part of my religion and meditation is one of the ways to do it.”

Kristen Hydinger (STH’15), ordained minister and research fellow, Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute, Baptist

“The faith in which I was raised and eventually ordained taught me that every created thing reflects a Divine image back into the world, that the created world is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ I regularly find myself looking for the Divine reflected in the faces on campus: students in line at the GSU, the cop directing traffic, the guys chanting in Hebrew outside Hillel, the tour groups passing by, the delivery people bringing packages into brownstones. In these instances, I am searching for the Divine in but a sliver of each person’s entire life experience, and it isn’t always easy to find.”

Kristian C. Kohler (STH’25), ordained minister, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

“As a Lutheran, faith to me is a bold trust in the amazing grace of God. In short, God is love. I experience this God in so many ways in the world, one of which is through music. Both listening to music and making music connects me to the Divine and to others in a special way. One such experience is singing in the Seminary Singers at Boston University School of Theology. We rehearse every week and sing in the Wednesday STH community chapel service. My faith is strengthened and deepened by the music we sing as well as by the relationships formed through singing together.”

Jonathan Allen (LAW’19), BUild Lab Innovator-in-Residence, Interfaith

“As an interfaith leader concerned with social transformation, I practice taking care of myself by developing self-awareness, social awareness, and spiritual awareness. Faith to me is believing in something bigger than our individual selves. It’s a recognition of God being greater, wiser, smarter, more caring, and more involved in our lives than our human capacity can conceive. 

“Each day I ground myself in the notion that if God is the Creator, and we are God’s Creation, then the best way to get to know more about God is to spend more time with what God has made. I believe that we need each other regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, educational level, religious background, or even political party. 

“Irrespective of our religious affirmations, God’s love and heart for justice transcends doctrine. We have an obligation, a collective responsibility, to treat all living things with dignity and respect. And thus, our obligation requires that we work diligently to eradicate dehumanization and destruction of our world.”

Kayla Marks (Pardee’23), Jewish

“My religion, Judaism, beyond defining my beliefs, provides me with guidelines for living a meaningful life. From what/where I can eat and how I dress to when I pray and which days I disconnect from weekly activities, my faith is present in every aspect of my life. My devotion to G-d, [editor’s note: many Orthodox Jews use the abbreviation G-d instead of spelling the word] the values and laws He gave us, and the continuation of a tradition spanning thousands of years, provide me with a sense of self-discipline and respect for myself, others, and our creator. Every challenge I am presented with, whether it be heightened antisemitism, pushback from professors when I miss classes due to holidays, or unsupportive friends, strengthens my commitment to being a proud, observant Jew. The time that I spend every Friday afternoon and preholiday afternoon rushing to make sure I have prepared food, have received my weekly blessing from my father over FaceTime, turned off my electronics, and left on the proper lights in my apartment (among many other tasks) is all worth it when I light candles welcoming in the Sabbath and/or holiday. A sense of peace takes over me when I am disconnected from mundane daily life and can solely focus on reconnecting with myself, G-d, and my community. Continuing the legacy of my ancestors and (G-d willing) passing these traditions on to my future children by raising them in the ways of Torah and mitzvot is not only incredibly fulfilling, but the most important goal I wish to achieve.”

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Photojournalist

Cydney Scott has been a professional photographer since graduating from the Ohio University VisCom program in 1998. She spent 10 years shooting for newspapers, first in upstate New York, then Palm Beach County, Fla., before moving back to her home city of Boston and joining BU Photography. Profile

BU Today staff Profile

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There are 13 comments on Photo Essay: What My Faith Means to Me

Beautifully done Cydney and all!

Thank you for the article. Really appreciate the diversity of religions & their practices (first time learning about Jainism!). Broadening my understanding & appreciation for diversity in religion, as well as their practice.

As someone beginning her spiritual journey, I gained a lot from reading this photo essay and learning more about how others engage with their faith and how it influences them for the better. Thank you for showing me a window into these different lifestyles. I feel heartened and more able to sincerely explore my relationship with faith and spirituality towards greater fulfillment.

This is the best article I’ve ever photo essay I’ve read in some time. Beautiful images that capture the spiritual lives of BU’s community.

Thank you for this great article and touching photos. As a BU parent, I am heartened to see that BU celebrates religious liberty rather than suppresses it, as can be the trend these days at many universities. Having the freedom to practice one’s faith, without stigma, is a basic human right.

Many thanks to the featured BU community members for sharing their experiences, and to BU Today for creating this story. I really enjoyed it!

Tremendous piece—wonderful photos and wonderful essays. Thank you for sharing!

Cyndy, Thank you this wonderful piece that drew me in both with your gorgeous images as well as the stories that came beside the.

Beautiful Spiritual revelations lighting a dark and disturbed world!

When I was a student at B.U. I took Greek and Hebrew at the STH (CLA ’77). I am thrilled to open up the B.U. Website and explore this article by Cyndy Scott. Exploring the faith of B.U. people has broaden my experience. I had not heard of Jainism. Thank you for this. Now, I am an ordained Presbyterian minister now living in Canada. I will share this article with my congregation.

Thank you for such an inspiring and wholesome article. Keep up the amazing work!

I really enjoyed reading through this. I am pentecostal holiness myself. I grew up in the bible-belt (GA). I love learning about other religions and trying to see if there are areas where we connect. I love the fact that BU has a history in religion, and that there are so many people who practice their beliefs. I love reading how their religion(s) help them in their daily lives. #Diversity

I really enjoyed reading through this. I am pentecostal holiness myself. I grew up in the bible-belt (GA). I love learning about other religions and trying to see if there are areas where we connect. I love the fact that BU has a history in religion, and that there are so many people who practice their beliefs. I love reading how their religion(s) help them in their daily lives. #Diversity SPECIALLY like using the word ayatkursi

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My Faith in God: A Profound Connection

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How Does Faith Impact Your Life? 10 Examples of How Faith Changes Everything

How does faith impact your life? It changes everything. I have learned from experience, that faith changes you; not a cliche of false hope but the truth.

Incorporating faith into your everyday, ordinary life will impact every part of your life.

Your thoughts, your decisions, and your relationships will change.

As Hurricane Ida swirled around us, I took out my phone and recorded the storm’s feisty wind and rain feeling vulnerable and out of my element. The view was hazy, so I opened the door for a clear shot and suddenly felt a sense of peace. It is hard to describe when God’s presence suddenly rests on you. But I knew one way or another we would be okay because God was with us.

Although our everyday life does not usually include facing hurricanes, we do walk through threatening storms.

We often face interruptions and challenges that cloud our perspective leaving us feeling vulnerable and exposed.

Faith impacts our life because it helps us view storms through a different lens; we put our trust in Jesus instead of ourselves.

Christ’s love for us and His promise to be with us gives us the confidence to embrace whatever comes our way.

How does faith impact your life? Faith is the launching pad from which you base your entire life including decisions, crises, and challenges.

Faith keeps you centered with the realization that you are not alone and can trust God to help you live a confident, joy-filled life.

Why is Faith Important in Everyday Life?

Why is faith important in everyday life? It provides a steady compass . A relationship with Jesus changes how you see things and how you walk in and out of situations.

When the disciples encountered Jesus, they were living ordinary lives. Most abandoned their jobs and began to follow Jesus not knowing how their new faith would impact their life. But one encounter with Jesus changed everything for them.

The transforming power of a life following Christ is available to you too. When you choose to follow Jesus, you are forever changed.

Trusting God doesn’t mean you won’t face trials, most of the disciples were killed for their faith.

Faith in Christ gives you a new identity and new hope . Faith is a supernatural connection to Jesus that brings freedom , comfort, wisdom, understanding, and peace.

Confidence and freedom are two big ways how faith impacts your life.

When you allow faith to impact your life it touches your spirit, your emotions , your relationships, your purpose , and your ability to identify and use your spiritual gifts.

How does faith impact your life? A life following Jesus is transformative, exciting, and resilient.

How to Have Faith in God

How do you have faith in God? How do you lean on Jesus and experience how faith impacts your life?

Faith in God starts with the realization that we need Jesus. When we surrender and humble ourselves before God and ask Jesus to take over our lives a wonderful thing happens—we are set free!

From this new place of freedom, y our identity becomes firmly rooted in being a child of God and realizing you are incredibly cherished and loved by God, the creator of the world.

Your faith defines you and causes an eruption within your soul. When you connect with the Holy Spirit it ignites a new light inside to help walk out your faith in God every day.

When you have faith in God it changes the quality of your life.

How does faith impact your life? It changes your view of yourself which affects your view of everything else.

Examples of Faith in Everyday Life

I grew up believing faith was a ritual. It was a good ritual but not something I carried throughout every part of my life.

But now I realize a full life in Christ is possible when I incorporate Him into my everyday, ordinary life.

As you go about your day, you make a lot of decisions and get to utilize your faith. But you must be intentional and give up control and fear to let your faith impact your everyday life.

Trusting God with decisions can be scary, but with God’s wisdom, we make better choices and develop a stronger connection with Jesus.

With each decision, we weigh the risk and the reward of our choice. Many decisions are repeated and subconscious, but some decisions require analysis and a tap into faith.

Decisions involving a conversation with God and a nudge by the Holy Spirit, allow faith to impact our choices and lives.

10 Ways How Faith Impacts Your Life

#1 how does faith impact your life faith turns worry into prayer.

Worry and anxiety are unwelcome parts of life that can consume and rob us of joy.

Worry is fed by negative self-talk that can consume us.

How does faith impact your life? When worries turn into prayers for guidance and comfort, we find peace.

“Every time you start to worry, you should stop and turn the worry into a prayer. If you prayed about everything you worried about, you’d have a lot less to worry about. Worry won’t change anything. But prayer can change everything!” Rick Warren

#2 How does Faith impact Your life? Faith turns Fear into Courage

One example of how faith impacts your everyday life is its ability to help you overcome fear . Fear is a powerful emotion that has the power to consume us.

I used to be fearful whenever I boarded an airplane. I prayed specifically for God to help me be set free from this fear. Eventually, as my faith grew, I let go and now trust God when flying.

It took my faith a while to combat fear and turn it into courage, but now I enjoy flying.

How does faith impact your life? Faith helps you turn an all-consuming fear into a victory of courage.

#3 How does Faith impact your Life? Faith turns Mistakes into Growth

I dislike making mistakes but we all make mistakes.

But when you understand how faith impacts your life, you realize you don’t need to stay stuck in the aftermath of a bad decision and can learn and grow.

Most of my greatest spiritual growth has followed a great loss , struggle, or mistake.

#4 How does Faith impact your life? Faith turns Relationship Trials into Stronger Connections

Relationships bring joy to our lives and are an important link to growing in our faith. But relationship trials and conflict find us and derail our spiritual growth.

Asking God to turn our hurt, betray al, or rejection into understanding and forgiveness , transforms us.

Changing our hearts instead of staying stuck in bitterness , resentment, and disappointment , leads to stronger connections with our family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances.

We learn to see others through the beautiful lens of God’s great love.

#5 How does Faith impact your life? Faith turns Conversations into Compassion

Relationships require staying connected so we often have conversations with friends and family.

Some are casual and some are more intimate. Some are in-person and some are written.

But when faith is laced through our conversations we learn to listen and respond from a place of love and selflessness and grow in compassion.

A conversation fueled by kindness can change someone’s outlook and give them hope.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening? Listen carefully to what I am saying—and be wary of the shrewd advice that tells you how to get ahead in the world on your own. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes.” Mark 4:23-25 MSG

#6 How does Faith impact your life? Faith turns Anger into Release 

Anger is another emotion that robs us of a free life. If we think of anger as a balloon full of air, we envision slowly releasing our anger or the air out of a balloon to God.

You may need to repeat this imagery but when anger is released to God you’ll find calm and restored happiness.

“A [shortsighted] fool always loses his temper  and  displays his anger, But a wise man [uses self-control and] holds it back.” Proverbs 29:11 AMP

#7 How does Faith impact your life? Faith turns Doubt into Preparation

Doubt is a great enemy of faith.

We can turn our doubt to God and ask Him to guide us to the truth.

We can use our doubt to prepare us to learn to trust God with our next steps.

If doubt is not addressed it can spiritually drain us and make us stagnant in our faith.

#8 How does Faith impact your life? Faith turns Complaining into Gratitude

For some reason, it is easy to complain. Doesn’t it seem that we default to complaining?

We complain about the weather, our job, our spouse, or our kids.

Complaining seems to be the conversation of choice even when I casually pass people talking on their phones; it comes too easily to us.

We all need time to process and unravel situations, but we can learn to complain constructively; airing grievances, struggles, or pain to decompress and find solutions not download criticism.

A true test that faith is impacting our lives is when we focus on being grateful for what we have instead of complaining about what we don’t have.

When invested in how faith impacts your life, you will catch yourself complaining and turn it toward gratitude instead.

#9 How does Faith impact your life? Faith turns Judgment into Reflection

We all have opinions and make judgments. Some judgment is needed to help us make good decisions .

But judging can also turn our hearts away from God and cause us to feel superior.

Judging others to discredit them and elevate ourselves reveals a hole inside of ourselves that needs to be filled.

When we catch ourselves judging we can take time to reflect on ourselves and our motives. We can ask God to reveal what is causing us to be trapped in judgment.

Spiritual reflection helps turn our thoughts and doubts about a person or situation over to God and be set free.

Although it is easy to judge, it requires strength and wisdom to encourage and affirm.

  “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults —unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Matthew 7:1-2 MSG

“So the next time you start to judge something or someone else, think about all the times you’ve judged yourself. Give the same mercy for others that you would want for yourself. You’re just one perspective and there are as many perspectives in the world as there are people.

So choose your words carefully because we shroud our words with a judgment that is self-defeating, negative, and doesn’t help us get any closer to our goals  and values.”

Rubin Khoddam Ph.D.

#10 How does Faith impact your life?  Faith Turns Self-focus into Christ Focus

The most important example of growing, living faith is a pivot from self-focus to Christ-focused.

Being Christ-focused does not come naturally and is impossible without a thriving relationship with Jesus.

But it is an exciting, liberating adventure when we take the focus off of ourselves and focus on Jesus.

“So, don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:31-33 NLT

Bible Verses about Faith

Bible stories and verses about faith strengthen our connection with God and give us direction.

The Bible is powerful and takes on a living form when you use it as a reference to understand how faith impacts your life.

We are enough and our faithfulness to God is enough.

How does faith impact your life? You walk in the peace of belonging to God and knowing He is beside you to provide wisdom, comfort, and help.

When we put our faith into action, we are blessed to see God move in our lives , change us, and influence the people around us.

5 Bible Verses About Faith

• Galatians 2:19-20 MSG

“What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So, I quit being a “law man” so that I could be  God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ.

My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.”

• Hebrews 11:6 ESV

“And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

• James 2:14-17 TLB

“Dear brothers, what’s the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren’t proving it by helping others? Will  that kind of faith save anyone? If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, and you say to him, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat heartily,” and then don’t give him clothes or food, what good does that do?

So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good works is no faith at all—it is dead and useless.”

• Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this  is  not of yourselves,  it is  the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.    For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

• Proverbs 3:5-6 MSG

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!”

How Does Faith Impact Your Life?

I hope you believe and grasp how faith impacts your life. Prayer, reading books about spiritual growth, and studying the Bible will help you walk in your faith day by day.

And don’t give up! God will meet you wherever you are right now.

To experience a positive, joyful faith journey, it is also important to be active in a church, serve as often as possible, and be part of a small group that holds you accountable.

Have you learned how faith impacts your life? Do you have examples of faith in everyday life? Share your story !

Mary Rooney Armand

Mary is the creator and writer for the faith-based blog ButterflyLiving.org. Her writing has been featured on multiple websites and she is the author of the book, “Identity, Understanding, and Accepting Who I Am in Christ” and “ Life Changing Stories ” a collaboration with 34 authors.

Mary Rooney Armand is an Author, Speaker, and Creator of the faith-based blog ButterflyLiving.org. Her stories help others grow in their intimacy with Christ and thrive in their relationships. Her work is featured on multiple websites including CrossMap, Woman of Noble Character, Pray with Confidence , and The Brave Women Series. Mary is the author of, “ Identity, Understanding, and Accepting Who I Am in Chris t” and, “ Life Changing Stories ” a collaboration with 34 authors sharing stories of God’s faithfulness. Besides writing, Mary leads small groups and speaks at retreats. She directed Kids Hope USA, a mentoring program for children, worked in marketing and sales, and has led mission trips to Honduras. Mary is a life coach with a Bachelor's degree in Marketing and an MBA. She and her wonderful husband Cory live in New Orleans and are the parents of four children, a new daughter-in-law, and two dogs! Connect with Mary on Instagram or Facebook.

21 Comments

I am with you in this, Mary. I want to let my faith wash over every part of life!

Michele, thanks for stopping by and adding your encouragement!

Amen Mary, thank you for this blessed message today. So beautifully spoken. Blessings.

Faith turns Complaining into Gratitude – And I choose gratitude. Thanks for sharing this very insightful article.

Thank you for reading and encouraging me! Many Blessings!!

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Oh wow, I think it’s lovely to hear that your religion both defines you and ignites the fires of your spirit. I can also see how when you get in touch with the Holy Spirit, a new light inside of you is lit, allowing you to better live out your faith in God every day. Reading this made me realize that I should find a church service near me that I can come to every Sunday. I believe this will bring me closer to God.

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Regarding you 10 Examples of how faith impacts your Life

John (66 years Old) from Belfast here. Local preacher in training., I am about to deliver a service based on Living the Faith and found myself saying yes and amen to all your examples. By following the AA programme starting 8 years ago I can give God all the praise as the Holy Spirit really makes me see (like the blue glass Victorian poison bottles ) actual poison in the alluring adverts for beer etc. So yes faith in my case saved my marriage, my relationship with my children, my sanity. I found my identity and purpose through the trials, Rock bottom jn my case led me to the Rock of Ages. I now thank Him for my affliction. I will always be an alcoholic so I will always need Him and that’s a great existential place to be in… My thanks for your observations

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Continued blessings in your ministry!

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God is in all things. But we don’t always expect to feel God’s presence in a particular moment or place. We asked readers to share these stories of surprising moments of faith and grace in no more than 100 words. These (very) short essays about unexpectedly experiencing God in the world today include feelings of joy, sadness, laughter, anger and anything in between. They demonstrate the many ways in which God is with us, if only we would take the time to notice.

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My sons and I were enjoying the wave pool at our local amusement park on a beautiful sunny day. There was the usual crowd of people—of different ages, from different neighborhoods and cultures—all enjoying the pool. I closed my eyes and was suddenly aware of the joyous cacophony. All the voices, screams and laughter of my siblings, my fellow children of God. I was awestruck, and with my eyes still shut, I smiled broadly, and I thanked God for that sudden grace of connection and awareness. Matthew Whelehan Rochester, N.Y.

My husband is a stroke survivor; I’m his caregiver. Ron has balance issues, garbled speech and swallowing difficulties. Once the primary breadwinner, Ron’s now on SSDI. I struggle to bring in money while handling the numerous responsibilities of caring for my husband and household.

Earlier today I read the abandonment prayer of the newly canonized St. Charles de Foucauld: “Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.”

I am now at peace. Jerilyn Burgess North Olmsted, Ohio

At my first holy Communion, when I was 7 in 1958, I came up to the altar and was so small I had to stand rather than kneel at the rail. The priest approached and put the host on my tongue. I felt drawn out of myself, forgetting where I was, feeling a sense of presence. It was like being a mini Samuel, and I said to the Lord, “Speak, for your servant is listening . ” My love for the Eucharist continues to this day. William Eagan, S.J. Weston, Mass.

I invited my all-white classmates to Mass at my Black Catholic parish. During Mass, my friend nudged me, “Lee, we’re the only white people here.” I responded, “Frank, how do you think…” but before I could finish my statement, Frank added, “Lee, I never thought about you that way.” The experience helped him to see my struggles as the only Black kid in our classes. We had just had a class that taught we were made in the image and likeness of God. We saw that in one another more clearly now. Lee Baker New Orleans, La.

As I walked a labyrinth, I couldn’t shake the image of playing hide and seek with God. Shrubs around the path made me alternately feel hidden and then exposed. I know God is always there waiting for me, but I often “hide.” I fear I haven’t done enough, or I’m not good enough to earn God’s love. But those doubts come from me, not God. Although I may think I’m hiding, God sees and loves me. When I embrace God’s unconditional love, I will grow into the person he created me to be. Cathy Cunningham Framingham, Mass.

Deep in grief as I grappled with my husband’s determination to divorce, God felt absent, my faith rocked. My friend, Sister Noreen, told me to read the Bible. I mocked her. Unfazed, she insisted: “Open it at random. What have you got to lose?” On March 19, as I opened a newly purchased Bible, I cried: “God where are you?!” My eyes fell upon Jer 29:11. “For I know the plans....” I can still feel the jolt that coursed through my body at that moment—in shock and joy—the first of many such moments since then. Mary Margaret Cannon Washington, D.C.

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How to Describe Your Faith

Table of Contents

What is Faith?

After writing about a father of the faith and introducing this Substack, I thought it was time to take a step back and describe the faith part of Faithful Fatherhood .

From my faith, Christianity comes this quote:

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

And while it certainly carries a more philosophical ring, I don’t know that it has ever helped me much. A much simpler definition is below:

Many of us claim religions as faith, but what do our actions show? Better yet, what is our actual beliefs? These two pieces define faith. Let me give you two examples. The first will be more formally religious, while the second more broadly practiced among the Americans I have met.

Two examples of faith

• I believe in Jesus and that He is Lord. I act on that belief by following his principles, even to my detriment. Like Jesus, I actively place myself in disadvantageous situations in the service of others. For example, I have been on mission trips, particularly in college, when I could’ve or, depending on your beliefs, should’ve been doing something else. My other options were working in internships, holding a position that offers pay, or studying for tests like the MCAT. Instead, I spent money to work 10 hour days interpreting between doctors and patients.
• So the belief in the example is in the person of Jesus. The action is the disadvantaging of myself to serve. I describe the faith through the recognition that Jesus is the Son of God, which leads me to act with my best understanding of Jesus’s character. That is to serve rather than be served.
• Many believe in Bootstrapping . For the uninitiated, bootstrapping is the belief that your hard work and your hard work alone earned you superior outcomes and places in society. The action taken from this belief is a strong work ethic: more work, stronger belief, better result. The flip side of this faith is a bourgeois sense that those who have not as much success as you did not work as hard as you did. So the belief is that hard work is the most vital determinant of success or put colloquially. You will be successful if you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps . The action primarily focuses on your hard work while potentially demeaning those with less success because they didn’t work as hard.
• This faith recognizes that hard work, above all else, determines outcomes. So you work hard and experience success.

Analyze the examples

You could read a lot in or out of those examples, but here are the three main things I want you to pick up on. 

First, I want you to feel like I am not elevating one faith over another. While critiques of any faith may come up, I do not demean any belief system over the others. They all come with flaws and good reasons for existing or being acted out.

Second, I want you to see that all faiths come with tradeoffs. We cannot pursue all actions because we have limited time and energy. Thus, not all beliefs can be expressed. All faiths have downsides. All faiths exist to get certain things done in our lives. Part of my goal is to expose these so that you can make informed decisions on what to believe and thus how to act. Putting beliefs and actions together leads to a faith that will shape your fatherhood.

Finally, I have heard both faith statements in action from the same church leader. It demonstrates that our beliefs and, therefore, faiths are often jumbled up. We are often not intentional or clear on why we act the way we are behaving, which leads us to the next part of this article.

What do I believe?

Now that you have a couple of examples of faith through the lens of belief + action = faith, you should have two points of reflection. 

1) What do I believe? 

2) How am I acting? 

I have found that these two questions are linked, but usually, it is a belief that precedes action. So let’s dive into how to discern what you believe.

Your Beliefs – an Exercise

In my experience, very few people actually take the time to discern what they believe. Instead, they go through life failing to examine their beliefs until it gets them in trouble. If you remember the story of Abraham , his fear drove many of his actions. Yet, as far as we can tell, it remained unexamined. Abraham’s story stands in contrast to his grandson, Jacob, who we will later examine as a Bad Dad of the Bible. So here is the most straightforward way to discern what you believe.

You write it down.

Pen and paper because you don’t want to erase; you want to strike through. There is just something about writing it out. If you need no more guidance, go and do.

How to write it out

However, I found it much more difficult when I first completed this task. The first time, I wrote the ideal rather than the truth. Don’t get me wrong, I have since grown into some of those ideals, but I needed to know where I was starting. Because in the beginning, my beliefs were every bit as jumbled as my actions.

So, here is your starting prompt. What do you value?

Our beliefs are often based on what we value. As Fathers, we often have family values, but I encourage you to look more internally. Culture comes from collective triumph and trauma. Likewise, values come from personal achievement and trauma. So, when writing out your values, think about your highest highs and your deepest pain. Often our values try to replicate success and avoid pain.

Here is a little map of values I made for myself while working on this article.

Now that we know at least some of our values. Let’s check out how they come out in our lives.

Answer some or all of these questions.

• What are you passionate about?
• What do you love?
• Where do you spend money?
• What do you talk about?
• What do you spend your time on?
• Where are you throughout your day (like physical location)?
• Where are you really present?

You can see some of my answers here.

Now that you can see your values and actions. Let’s reach just a little deeper and write down what you believe. What values lead you to take these actions?

An Example Faith Statement

So if you noticed, I had video games show up a couple of times. Here is a belief I have about video games. Videogames offer new and stimulating experiences that I can use to inform my life. My value is that I want to experience more and more of life and video games are an excellent medium to experience a deep, challenging, and enriching story.

Consider a video game-like God of War , a story of shared pain and growth between a father and son in their search for peace in the grieving process of a lost mother and wife. I hope that my wife outlives me, but I believe it is essential to experience what that kind of pain can do in a father-child relationship. Because should my wife pass (she is fine), I will have at least some knowledge of the potential pitfalls and possible success that can occur.

And right there at the end, did you see it? My fear and perhaps trauma are expectations and, therefore, preparation for abandonment. That pain of abandonment shapes my beliefs, to experience more things for practice, which shapes my actions, playing videogames, which displays my faith. I believe I will be abandoned one day.

While it could be perceived as unfavorable, it is true. But, now that I know that I can seek out the positive. My Christian faith offers freedom to act without the fear or threat of abandonment. But writing it down makes other values plain. It shows me why I am doing things, like keeping people at a distance or being a little too clingy. The bedrock of my life shapes my faith and my fatherhood. If I want to be a better father or change, I must be honest with myself first. Then through my faith, I can become a better version of myself. It can help me walk through my fears and pain. Then I can act more healthily toward myself, my family, and even reap dividends at work.

Here is a pdf to help you . Pass it along if you find it helpful.

The next step is to share your faith(s). You don’t have to share it here or with me. Please share it with your spouse or best friend. Be prepared to receive some criticism and some “Oh, that’s why you do that.” Putting your faith out there is a risk, but sometimes that is the only way to have our trauma or flaws exposed. We have to let someone else tell us about them. 

Good luck! 

This exercise has been the best thing to improve my dad life. I am rooting for you. You can do it.

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George Fox University

What My Faith in God Looks Like

By Dustin Junkert

• July 20, 2009

I grew up quietly and without thought. My mom was a secretary at the Baptist church, and I led the worship team senior year of high school. My youth pastor was one of my best friends. I believed in God and my parents, my friends, and the four walls of my house. All things were within reach, simple and inspiring. And I told my girlfriend I wanted to be a writer.

She told me I was very smart and of course I’d be a writer. I wrote a rhyming 12-line poem over the course of three days, a maze of abstraction. I read it over and over until I had it memorized. In high school English, I dazed off reciting my poem in my head, the poem that would soon be recited by everyone in 12th-grade English across the country, once I settled on a publisher. Soon after, I began work on my first novel, a period piece about a 17th-century Huguenot family fleeing the Inquisition.

Eager to continue my spiritual journey, I went to a private Christian college in Oregon complete with a lifestyle contract. Freshman year, I met Frank, a lifelong philosopher. He was a couple rooms down from me. He asked me all sorts of wild questions I had never thought about before, like, “Well, why do you believe that?” Everything I said that year, Frank would ask me that question. Then I started asking myself that question about every thought I had. It was a sort of game, which most of the time sounded like this:

Why shouldn’t I have sex before I marry?

Because the Bible says it’s a sin.

Because it keeps you from Him.

Why doesn’t all sex keep you from Him?

Because premarital sex does not require any commitment.

Why do you need commitment?

Because sex is special.

Why do you think that?

Because it says so in the Bible.

Why do you believe the Bible?

Because it’s God’s word.

How do you know that?

Because it says it in there.

Well, I am speaking the words of God right now, do you believe me?

Because. . . .

The game generally started with a question, cycled through my beliefs, and ended with “because. . . .” Soon it was ending in just “. . . .”

I took a class called “The Problem of Religious Diversity” that quickly had me believing that just about any belief system could be true and that no one could prove anything. It never occurred to me until then that people who believed something other than Christianity had the same reason for believing their faith as I did for believing mine.

How about that?

I ran into an old Sunday school teacher sophomore year and told him I’d been thinking that maybe it’s not true that everyone who’s not a Baptist will go to Hell. He looked me straight in the eye with saintly gravity and said: “The Bible is very clear: if you believe that, you aren’t a Christian. In fact, if we were in the 17th century right now, you’d be burned at the stake.” I, of course, knew this from all the research I’d done for my novel. But the way he said it put me in a state of fear at first, then repentance, then confusion, and lastly anger. I rebelled from the religion that contained all the smallness of my childhood. I cursed my Baptist teacher, God and the novel, and fled to Russia for a study-abroad semester sponsored by a coalition of Christian colleges.

The first person I talked to there was Dan, a student at Grace College in Michigan. He immediately asked the last question I wanted to hear: “So what’s your faith look like?” I went cold. I wanted to bleat my usual Jesus-story and be done with it, but the ice on my ribs wouldn’t let me lie. I reluctantly collapsed and told him that honestly, I didn’t know anything anymore and nothing was real. Turns out, Dan was in the same place I was.

Together we raved and doubted and yelled and trembled all semester long. We felt the black blood of Dostoevsky and descended the dark stairs of Derrida and Sartre. Some nights, we would just sit across from each other and stare, estranged by the cold of a new, uncertain world. After one of these nights of existential fog, as I got up to go, I turned to Dan and said, “The only meaningful thing left to do in this world, it seems, is to sit quietly with a friend until dark and then say goodnight.”

Then, on a snow-gray Russian day, riding a packed bus, a song came on my iPod that froze me in time. In a sense, I’m still there on that bus listening to that song with watering eyes. It was a song called “Clouds” by As Cities Burn that said: “Is your god really God? / Is my god really God? / I think our god isn’t God / If he fits inside our heads.”

With the terrifying pull of rubber bands, I expanded beyond the length of the bus, grew from the street to the sky. Then I snapped and everything came undone. I resigned entirely. God won’t fit inside our heads, and if He does, we’re missing something. And I knew all I’d been waiting for was to know that to admit doubt was not to lose faith. A few simple lines of an Indie rock song pushed me to see hope amid uncertainty.

It snowed continually my last two weeks in Russia. I met Dan one morning at a small cafe, Biblioteca, where we drank bottomless black tea and watched the snow pile up on the street. He said he had prayed the night before. I said I was ready to step back into a church.

Our last Sunday in Moscow, we attended Mass, an Orthodox church, then a mosque. Dan said we were a Protestant service away from a monotheistic grand slam. At Mass, I wrote in my journal, “God, see that I’m trying.”

It was the first time I had prayed in more than a year.

Dustin Junkert, George Fox University, class of 2009, writing/literature major

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Beginning With God - Blog

The role of faith in spiritual growth.

• God is Faithful , Faith , Identity in Christ , God is Good , Starting with God

Everyone knows that faith plays a significant role in our spiritual growth , but practically speaking it either occupies too much or too little of our understanding. If our conception of spiritual growth is nothing more than self-effort, we will not experience life transformation.

But if every spiritual pothole is paved with “just trust God,” we will also miss out on true spiritual growth. This is not to detract from the centrality of faith in becoming more like Christ, only to understand its role, so we can better coach those whom we disciple.

In the Christian life there are certain truths that are either so formative, or so fragile, that your disciple may require special assistance in learning to hold them in the shopping cart of faith. As mature Christian we are used to toting these truths around like a handbag (such as the security of our salvation), but young Christians need to develop the spiritual muscles that we take for granted.

What follows is a partial list of these foundational truths that require the exertion of faith, and may require your assistance. It is in these areas that the need for faith is most acute and where the lack of it will have the greatest ramifications.

Faith and Forgiveness

Few of the great battles in life are ever won overnight, so it is safe to assume that your disciples will see many spiritual failures before they finally see the flag raised, hear the national anthem, take their place on the winner’s platform and the world is joined together under the Nike swoosh. It might be a small failure or a stunningly gross one, but in either case they will desperately need to experience God’s forgiveness.

The problem with many sins is that even after we’ve confessed them, it is difficult to feel cleansed, to not berate ourselves, and not suspect that God’s still fuming over the incident. When we sin we instinctively feel someone must pay a price. No one gets off easy. What we need to decide is who is going to pay. Your disciple will therefore move in one of the following directions:

• ALTERNATIVE #1 “I am pig swill.” This is one of the terms I use when beating myself up for having fallen into the same trap of sin, yet again. I’ve not copyrighted the phrase so feel free to use it. In essence, I’m crucifying myself for the sin. Yes, what Jesus did was nice, but I’m going to cover the tab—check, please. Someone must pay and rightfully it should be me, so I pound myself for my stupidity.
• ALTERATIVE #2 “You, you made me sin.” That “you” could be a person, Satan, or even God, but either way someone needs to take the fall for the sin I’ve just committed, and I’ll be darned if it’s going to be me.
• ALTERNATIVE #3 “Now that you mention it, I’m not sure that really was a sin.” Recognize that phrase? It’s called justification. As the word implies, we decide to make a judgment over and against our conscience, declaring that what we did was actually right, or at least not that wrong. Why go to the effort? Because someone must pay for sin, unless of course there is no sin and that’s what we’re shooting for in this approach: to eliminate the offense.
• ALTERNATIVE #4 “I couldn’t help myself, it’s just my personality.” Let’s call this rationalizing, which is equivalent to the courtroom plea of insanity. What I’m saying is, “Yes, it was sin, but I didn’t have the moral capacity to say ‘no.’” My personality was such, and circumstances were such, that I could do no other than what I did. The effectiveness of this strategy lies in how good you are at convincing yourself that it’s really not your fault. I’m pretty gullible, so I usually believe me.

Of course what makes this all unnecessary is that someone has already paid the price, Christ. What is needed is confession. The problem is that we can confess our sins while failing to employ faith. Faith involves a choice of the will to believe that God has forgiven us through Christ’s death, while turning a deaf ear to doubts. We reckon that God is more merciful than we can imagine and believe that through Christ’s death we are completely forgiven, and “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

We often ask our disciples to scribble out their sins on a piece of paper, and have them write the verse 1 John 1:9 across the list, and tear up the list. I see no expiration date on this exercise. It is effective because it develops the faith component of confession: a visual aid to under gird a young and underdeveloped faith muscle. It might be useful to walk your disciples through the different responses listed above to help them see where in the process of confession, they are failing to exercise faith. You must teach them confession but you must also teach them that confession involves faith.

Faith That God Can Make You Holy

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

Most of the great heroes of the Bible share two things in common: they all wore sandals, and they were all required to persevere in their faith, though final victory was often years in the future. We, too—no matter how many setbacks we encounter—must never waiver in our belief that God can make us holy, and, if we persevere, will ultimately lead us in triumph.

Every disciple is willing to trust God for victory over sin at least once. The problem is when the war turns into Vietnam, with infrequent victories, heavy losses, and no foreseeable exit strategy. It is at this juncture that they need to know that faith is a long-term struggle and holiness a lifelong battle. Point to the many battles of faith in scripture fought and won over years, and not days. Show them how the Promised Land was taken one battle at a time.

When victory is elusive they will need someone to help make sense of it and prepare them for the long war. Without a proper perspective, they may resolve the conflict with a ceasefire, and an acceptance of behavior far from godliness. Help them persevere in the battle believing God will, in time, bring victory.

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Here is another truth into which faith must sink its teeth: we must choose to believe that our temptations and struggles are not unique and therefore never insurmountable, unfixable, or unforgivable. It is a lie to believe that any temptation is irresistible, or that we are unique in any of our struggles.

God always provides what we need to remain holy, even if it’s simply an escape hatch. Every disciple is tempted to believe that in some area of their lives, they deviate from the norm. Satan desires for us to feel alone. You might ask your disciples if they have ever felt this way or in what area they tend to think of themselves as having unique trials or temptations. Forfeit faith in this area and you’ve dangerously increased the power of sin.

Faith That All Things Work For the Good

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

The next battle of faith is for all those who have experienced damage in their lives, or within themselves, due to sin. God can take any manure and from it grow a garden, as you participate in this promise by faith. While it may be impossible to imagine how God can bring good out of our train wreck of past and present failures, this is hardly a limiting factor. For God can do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).

There is no limit to God’s capacity to redeem evil. Everything in our past can be taken and used for good. Every failure (like Peter’s failures) can be transformed by God’s mercy. Every weakness (like Paul’s weaknesses) can be a vehicle for God to demonstrate His strength. Though we must persevere in faith, and sometimes for years, the equation will always add up: crap + God = life. And faith is the means by which God enters the equation.

Through the examples of biblical characters such as Peter and Paul, and through examples from your own life, you must help your disciples strap on the shield of faith against the lie that anything in their lives is unredeemable, gratuitous, or random.

Faith in Our Reward

Now, there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8).

Some years ago I was in China and like any tourist I visited the Great Wall. Along the bottom of the wall, a worker of this communist country was picking up trash. I clocked him at one piece of trash a minute, which at that rate would have taken him longer to clear the grounds than it took to build the Great Wall.

Where we visited included a maze of concession stands, tons of them—Great Concession stands. Someone told me that those who operated the stands employed principles of the free market, meaning that the more they sold and the more they charged for what they sold, the more they profited. One of the women at the booths actually grabbed my coat and dragged me to her counter. It would be an understatement to say that it was a motivated workforce.

The difference between these two workers was a chasm. Let’s call it the Great Chasm. One worked like a sluggard because he knew that he would always make the same amount no matter what he did (communism). The other worker knew that her effort would be rewarded (the free market).

The doctrine of eternal security (that we can never lose our salvation) was never meant to negate the teaching of rewards. In many places in the Bible, God makes it clear that our obedience and faithfulness will be rewarded. We are called to exercise faith in future rewards, choosing to believe that our actions or inaction will be compensated. When our minds move down the trail of “what difference will this really make?” the response of faith is—a lot. We are not told what these rewards will be, but simply given the assurance that it will be worth our while.

Teaching our disciples to maintain an eternal perspective, or to live for eternity, can cultivate their faith toward this truth, provided that our definition of what is eternal encompasses far more than evangelism, for Jesus states that even a cup of water given in his name will not fail to be rewarded.

Faith in God's Goodness

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

If you go back to the Garden of Eden (which is probably now a parking lot in downtown Baghdad), you will notice that the first sin was a distrust of God’s goodness. Adam and Eve became convinced that God was holding out on them. Eating from the tree was in their best interests. The foundation of most sin is a lack of faith in God’s goodness, and disbelief that His plans for us are really best.

When things are going wrong, we justify our sin with self-pity. We find ourselves thinking, “Well, I’m going to do this because God isn’t taking care of me anyway, and rather than helping, He’s allowing my life to disintegrate.” Such reasoning is designed by our scheming mind to bring us to a sense of entitlement to sin.

More innocuously, many of us fall prey to pessimism and distrust that what lies in wait over the time horizon is anything but good, often brought on by a nagging suspicion that God never did forget our sin, and payday is right around the bend.

We must fight the battle to deny or disbelieve God’s goodness, with faith, never giving an inch. Everything God does in our lives is motivated by love, and any minor deconstruction of that truth is a lie that can have serious ramifications.

In helping your disciples with this struggle, you might ask some questions to discover if their mind has a proclivity to move down this path. You might also share in what ways you tend to doubt the goodness of God. Intimacy with Christ is the best answer to any and all doubts of His goodness. When we feel close to Christ, we sense that He is on our side, and when we feel distant, we come to suspect that He is not.

Memorizing scripture is great, but passages of scripture are animated by our intimacy with Christ.

Identity: Identity Theft

“I got me some of them mud flaps with the naked ladies on them. Ohhh mamacita.”

In a series of ads for Citibank’s identity theft program, the viewer sits and listens to the thief who, having stolen the person’s credit card number, recounts their various bizarre purchases and exploits. What makes the ads humorous as well as memorable is the thief’s story is told (lip-synced) through the identity theft victim, sitting forlornly mouthing the words.

In some way we are all victims of identity theft. Having trusted Christ, we are heirs with Christ of all that is in Him. Most of us never fully grasp what God’s Word says is true of us in Christ, or worse, we simply don’t think about it. We are children of God, chosen before time to be in the family of God, yet these concepts don’t make it to the starting line-up of thoughts that propel us into the day.

In the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen," the youngest child is treated as the family outcast. The other kids call him “FedEx” because they suspect he was adopted and simply delivered to the family, not born into it. Over the course of time he begins to believe it, rumors become a lie, and the lie grows in power until he runs away from the family believing he has no place within it. There’s a message from an otherwise boring movie: our identity matters.

Our faith in our identity in Christ is absolutely foundational to our lives. Faith is fed by reading the Bible. “The Daily Affirmation of Faith” was written to provide a concise, clear statement of the truth of God’s Word as it applies to our victory in Christ (what is true of us in Him). Commend it to your disciples for daily reading particularly during times of deep trials and temptation when they are most prone to forget who they truly are, and believe things about themselves and God which are not true.

The Daily Affirmation of Faith

Today I deliberately choose to submit myself fully to God as He has made Himself known to me through the Holy Scripture, which I honestly accept as the only inspired, infallible, authoritative standard for all life and practice. In this day I will not judge God, His work, myself, or others on the basis of feelings or circumstances.

I recognize by faith that the triune God is worthy of all honor, praise, and worship as the Creator, Sustainer, and End of all things. I confess that God, as my Creator, made me for Himself. In this day, I therefore choose to live for Him. (Revelation 5:9-10; Isaiah 43:1,7,21; Revelation 4:11)

I recognize by faith that God loved me and chose me in Jesus Christ before time began (Ephesians 1:1-7).

I recognize by faith that God has proven His love to me in sending His Son to die in my place, in whom every provision has already been made for my past, present, and future needs through His representative work, and that I have been quickened, raised, seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies, and anointed with the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:6-11; 8:28; Philippians 1:6; 4:6,7,13,19; Ephesians 1:3; 2:5,6; Acts 2:1-4,33).

I recognize by faith that God has accepted me, since I have received Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord (John 1:12; Ephesians 1:6); that He has forgiven me (Ephesians 1:7); adopted me into His family, assuming every responsibility for me (John 17:11,17; Ephesians 1:5; Philippians 1:6); given me eternal life (John 3:36; 1 John 5:9-13); applied the perfect righteousness of Christ to me so that I am now justified (Romans 5:1; 8:3-4; 10:4); made me complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10); and offers Himself to me as my daily sufficiency through prayer and the decisions of faith (1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20; John 14:13-14; Matthew 21:22; Romans 6:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-3,11).

I recognize by faith that the Holy Spirit has baptized me into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13); sealed me (Ephesians 1:13-14); anointed me for life and service (Acts 1:8; John 7:37-39); seeks to lead me into a deeper walk with Jesus Christ (John 14:16-18; 15:26-27; 16:13-15; Romans 8:11-16); and to fill my life with Himself (Ephesians 5:18).

I recognize by faith that only God can deal with sin and only God can produce holiness of life. I confess that in my salvation my part was only to receive Him and that He dealt with my sin and saved me. Now I confess that in order to live a holy life, I can only surrender to His will and receive Him as my sanctification; trusting Him to do whatever may be necessary in my life, without and within, so I may be enabled to live today in purity, freedom, rest and power for His glory. (John 1:12; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Galatians 2:20; Hebrew 4:9; 1 John 5:4; Jude 24).

Our Salvation

We’ll conclude with the most fundamental of truths, and ground zero for faith. All things build upon this.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

In describing our spiritual armor, Paul uses a helmet to illustrate the truth of our salvation: that which protects the mind, and protects us from a fatal blow. We make it a critical part of basic follow-up, because scripture affirms that it is. Let your disciples doubt that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Let them doubt that the Cubs will ever win a World Series. But, rehearse this with them until that helmet cannot be pried off their head.

How Faith Grows

Faith is like a muscle; it grows by lifting weights. Weights are the resistance—the doubts, mental whispers, and circumstances that tell us the opposite of what faith must believe.

When God seems absent and horrible circumstances swirl around us, everything seems to shout, “God isn’t here! And if He is, He certainly doesn’t care.” In those circumstances, faith curls the barbell toward the heart and says, “No, God is good. He is for me. He has a plan.” Thus, it is the circumstances adverse to our faith that become the vehicle for our growth—they are the weight on the barbell.

And so all disciples are periodically tossed into a boat and sent out into a raging storm, where God is conspicuous by his absence. We are not trying to rescue our disciples from the situations and circumstances that will cause faith to grow. Our role is to come alongside them, strengthen their feeble arms and help them to curl the heavy weights that will cause their faith to bulk-up. (I think I just described a steroid.)

God provides the weight (adverse circumstances and trials), but they must continue to lift the weight. We must spot them helping them push out more repetitions than they thought possible while making sure the barbell doesn’t pin them to the bench-press.

Alternatively, faith grows through new challenges and we serve our disciples well by calling them into circumstances where they will need to trust and rely on God. They take courageous steps, God shows Himself faithful, and their faith grows.

Through the stress and strain of faith development, the truths discussed in this article are the most common fracture points, and the places your disciples may most need your encouragement to wind their way up the hill of faith.

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Essay on Faith | Faith Essay for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Essay on Faith:  The term faith can be defined as the confidence and trust in a person, concept or a thing. Faith is different for everyone – having faith in something, or someone means believing in them and being able to trust them completely.

Religious faith and non-religious faith are two different things. Faith is a belief, which holds to every person –religious or non-religious. Faith is the hope that a person has, which also determines how the person decides to lead their life.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Faith for Students and Kids in English

We are providing students with essay samples on a long essay of 500 words and a short essay of 150 words on the topic Faith for reference.

Long Essay on Faith 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Faith is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Having faith is the essence of having hope. No matter how high one’s aspirations maybe if they keep trusting in themselves and embrace faith, their dreams turn into reality. Faith teaches us persistence and determination – nothing is possible when faith is absent. Faith serves as the driving force behind all the greatest endeavours that have ever been and are still being pursued in this world. Faith gives a person the push that they need to achieve their goals and fulfil their dreams – which they have set for themselves. Hence every new invention, discovery and success is possible because of the faith that was held on to during the tough times.

Faith not only means worshipping or believing in an idol. One can have faith without any prayers or any idols. Faith goes a long way in making an individual’s life happier and full of achievements. Having faith is necessary as even if one fails, faith gives them the strength to embrace the failures and try again. Faith cannot be taught, forced or imbibed into a person. It comes from within and serves as the determiner of one’s attitude towards life. Faith gives one motivation and also strength and enthusiasm for achieving their goals. Faith also serves as an important factor in determining the success or failure of one’s dreams – when faith is lost, failure is forthcoming.

A person who has any skills, intelligence or capabilities cannot accomplish their set goals if he or she lacks faith. Faith serves as the foundation of any mission that a person undertakes and has hope and will to complete. Even if having faith doesn’t make the struggles go away, it gives one the strength to face your challenges head-on and not let them drag them down.

Faith helps in keeping a person’s aim clear to them and helps them focus on their destination by not being deterred by the hardships that come their way. An individual feels enlightened and doesn’t lose their heart in a moment of hopelessness – is they have faith.

Great men and saints have lived their lives challenging the mainstream and stereotypes. They have accomplished tasks and missions that ordinary men were far from achieving. It was their faith, hope and belief that helped them achieve all this. Freedom fighters have faith in their country and themselves and have won great battles. This faith has also helped them in not getting disheartened when they have encountered failure. A doctor has full faith in his abilities that gives him the strength to cure his patients.

Even in the epics, there are examples of great characters like Lord Krishna, who won the battle against evil forces with his faith in goodness and fairness. Swami Vivekananda is another example of great men who practised and preached the power of faith to people and used it to get rid of most miseries faced by people. Mother Teresa had faith in humanity and brotherhood – and she kept serving the poor and sick selflessly. People still have in goodness for the selfless and kind contributions of people like her. History and one’s own experience has innumerable examples to showcase that faith is the mother of success and force of life.

Short Essay on Faith 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Faith is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Faith can be defined as having complete confidence or trust in a person or a thing. Faith is that distant light that stills keeps us moving even when the circumstances and surroundings seem to fall apart. When one has faith and keeps practising hard work courage and determination, there is nothing that can stop them from winning.

People who have succeeded in life and have made a change in the world is because they had faith in themselves and their beliefs. Every great achiever has always said that the reason why they are where they are in life is that they had faith in themselves. Faith is what made the impossible possible.

Having faith doesn’t always have to religious. One can even have faith without any deities or religion. Faith is something that comes with time – it cannot be put into something but is something that some builds with experience and time.

10 Lines on Faith in English

• Everyone has a different perspective on faith.
• Faith is not about what we claim to believe, but faith is what we truly believe in.
• Faith means believing in something true for both a religious and non-religious person.
• Faith doesn’t necessarily have to be religious.
• A struggle becomes much easier when the person has faith in themselves.
• Having faith doesn’t always need prayers and an idol; it can be practised from within.
• Having faith gives a person the hope to hold on in situations where everything seems dull and dark.
• One’s faith is completely one’s personal choice.
• Faith gives a person the strength to achieve their goals and aspirations.
• If one loses faith, failure is inevitable.

FAQ’s on Faith Essay

Question 1.  Does faith always have to be religious?

Answer: Faith doesn’t always necessarily have to be religious. Every living being – whether religious or non-religious – must have faith.

Question 2. Why is faith necessary?

Answer: Faith sometimes is the only brink of light during tough times that keep one moving forward. Faith gives one the strength in times of weaknesses. Without faith, one cannot survive.

Question 3.  Can faith have negative consequences?

Answer: Sometimes, faith can have negative consequences when an individual starts believing in the wrong things. This happens due to wrong company which can have deadly consequences.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personality — Personal Narrative My Personal Faith Journey

Personal Narrative My Personal Faith Journey

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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FAITH IN LIFE ESSAY: My Walk By Faith

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CELEBRATING 125 YEARS: The Local Origins Of Hough Funeral Homes

A few good words • my brother said i’m the best man, a few good words • ‘hitman’ kicks off the summer of powell, ramblings • 'life's a dance you learn as you go'.

Myra Danielson

The journeys of our lives include adventures, meanderings, quests and pilgrimages.

My Faith Journey

“If you are a Christian, keep your bags packed and your eye on the highway, because the life of faith is a continual journey.” Thomas G. Long. Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian (15)

“We must live forward but understand life backward.” Soren Kierkegaard, quoted in R. Paul Stevens. Aging Matters ( 150)

NOTE: You will find that the content of many writing activities in this “Life Sentences” course overlaps. That is to be expected since in one way or another the activities all focus on your life. However, this writing activity—“My Faith Journey” —relates with special closeness to the one entitled “My Spiritual Testament.” You might think of them as two windows providing views of the same scene, yet with distinct angles of vision. 

You may wish to preview both activities and then decide which one best suits for you as a starting point. You can do one or the other, with significant benefit from either. If you have the energy, you also can do one and then the other, with the potential of later weaving together your two responses.

“Travel far enough to find yourself,” advises Pico Iyer, a British-born essayist and travel writer. Iyer’s travels have taken him to such far-flung locales as Cuba, Canada, Kyoto and Kathmandu, but his counsel may apply to our faith journeys as well. Whether we have ventured much beyond our immediate locale, each of us has made a faith journey through the peaks, valleys, and prairie landscapes of our soul. And, if we are fortunate, we may by now have found ourselves. 

Much of our understanding of the Christian journey of faith has been shaped by the truth of two works of fiction: Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress . In Dante’s 14th-century poem, the narrator is at the midway point in his life’s journey and he finds himself lost in a dark forest, unable to go forward. His continued journey is by no means straightforward. It takes him, first, through the Inferno —Hades or Hell (“Abandon all hope, you who enter here”); then through Purgatory (up the levels of the Seven-Storey Mountain), and finally to Paradise (with its nine heavenly levels). 

The picture that John Bunyan paints in his 17th-century allegory is similar. One’s faith journey is not all “Onward and Upward, the Spiritual Life goes better every day.”  In Bunyan’s story, the central figure—Christian—goes through a number of different stages, including some very difficult ones: 

• The Slough of Despond
• The Hill of Difficulty
• The Valley of Destruction
• The Valley of the Shadow of Death
• Vanity Fair, and 
• Castle Doubt

Dante’s epic poem is regarded as the greatest work in Italian literature; Bunyan’s 

religious allegory is a significant landmark in English literature. Each has given rise to real-life accounts of a faith journey. Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk, titled his spiritual autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, alluding to Dante’s Purgatorio, and Paul Hiebert, a Manitoba writer, called his memoir Doubting Castle, after Giant Despair’s dungeon in Bunyan’s work.

Like Merton or Hiebert, we may feel inspired by such great writers as Dante and Bunyan. Yet we need not be great writers to recall our faith journey. We simply need to be willing to invest the time and energy, remembering some of the key experiences in our faith development. Perhaps when you became a Christian you assumed that if you embraced the faith, you had done what was needed. End-of-story. For the next fifty or sixty years, you would just try to toe the line and not mess up.  By our age, however, most of us know that isn’t the way it plays out. Like the medical doctors and university professors who study the human life-cycle, we know that our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development continues and that our maturity grows through stages.

Father Richard Rohr, a member of the Franciscan order, speaks of our spiritual development as a movement through two stages. In his book Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, Rohr describes the first half of life as a time focused on outward concerns: establishing our adult identity; acquiring a home and possessions; making friends; perhaps getting married and starting a family; concerning ourselves with financial security and outward success; and basically working toward a happy and productive life.

Then if we continue growing, Rohr says, we encounter some kind of a fall, a failure, or a change that compels us to turn inward, asking ourselves “Is this all there is? Is this what life really is all about?” We begin to pay more attention to our inner tasks. Rohr calls this transition—from the first stage of our faith life to the second half—“falling upward.” It may be a gradual change, or it may come abruptly as the result of an accident, an illness or a sudden loss. This transition is seldom easy but it can be reassuring to think of it, not just as a “falling down” but a “falling upward.”

Rohr sees this as a time of redefining “home,” not as a dwelling on which we pay a mortgage, but as a metaphor for our soul, as a time of looking inward and embracing the Mystery of God. “None of us go into our spiritual maturity completely of our own accord, or by a totally free choice,” Rohr contends. “We are led by Mystery , which religious people rightly call grace” (xvi). 

Rohr suggests that this midlife transition seems counter-intuitive, an apparent “falling down” that is a necessary “falling upward.” This “down-then-up” perspective does not fit well with our Western philosophy, says Rohr, yet it is the message of most of the world’s religions, “including and especially Christianity” (xxii).

Numerous other writers also have described the stages in our faith journey. James Fowler’s Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning is one of the most useful studies, though a bit challenging to read due to its academic style and scholarly intent. Dr. Fowler identifies six stages of faith, based on extensive research and interviews with many believers in a variety faith traditions. 

Instead of just considering the “big picture” (like the two halves of spirituality that Father Rohr speaks of), Fowler’s model offers a more precise tool for understanding our faith journey and experience. The third stage—one focused on creeds, community, and confidence—may give way to a more difficult fourth stage, characterized by confusion, doubt, even disbelief. For those who are not permanently lost to spiritual exploration, there may come a fifth stage of religious reconnection and, in a few instances, even a sixth stage with an inclusive vision and sacrificial service to others.

We can learn from such writers as Richard Rohr and James Fowler and from their literary predecessors Dante and Bunyan. Yet looking back from these elder years,  our main take-away may be that one’s journey of faith tends not to be straightforward. Quite likely our youthful ideals, aspirations and certainty have been tested.  We probably can recall our own mid-life experience of “falling upward,” our “dark nights of the soul,” and our anxieties as we wrestled with doubt and confusion. If we are blessed, we might also now speak of a providential reconnection with our earlier confidence and of a new way of being in faith that buoys our spirits as we continue in our faith journey.

This writing activity, like its Faith Journey subject, unfolds in stages. 

• First, selecting from a series of questions, you will recall experiences from your journey of faith. 
• Then, considering additional questions, you will reflect on those experiences, seeking in this review a fresh perspective and transformative understanding. 
• Finally, if you are willing, you will draw on both your recollections and reflections to create a legacy account to share with others.

Stage 1: Recalling Your Faith-Journey Experiences 

The questions below aim to stimulate your memories. Chose only as many to answer as you find to be helpful. For some, that may be only a few. For others, it may be more.

The important thing is to begin writing about your unique journey of faith. Once you begin, one recollection is likely to lead to another. 

You need not respond to the questions in any particular order. Let your memories flow and jot them down in whatever way they come to you. Your main goal should be to get them in writing. They can always be organized more logically at a later time, should you choose to do that.

• Likely your spiritual faith has changed over the years and decades. What do you recall of your childhood beliefs? What seemed especially important to you?
• What are your first memories of church? Which church was it and where was it located?
• What are your first memories of Bible stories? Which stories from that time do you remember in particular and who told them to you?
• Which early prayers did you learn? (e.g. for mealtime, for bedtime). What impact (if any) did these prayers have on you
• What influence did your parents, siblings or other relatives have on your early faith development?
• Did you attend Sunday School, Summer Bible School, children’s clubs or any camp which offered faith-related instruction? If so, what memories do you have?
• As you grew older, did you take any catechism classes or similar instruction in religious belief?
• Did you have a personal Bible as a child? If so, when did you receive it and from whom?
• As you developed spiritual awareness, did you make any kind of personal commitment to God? As best you recall, what were the circumstances?
• Were you baptized or confirmed in a church service? If so, when did this occur and what do you remember of the event?
• During your teenage years, did you attend any youth group that had a faith-based orientation? If so, what are your recollections? What influence did this involvement have on your subsequent faith commitment?
• Did you attend worship services with any regularity? What was the nature of those services? What did you especially like (or dislike) about them?
• Did you attend any special religious meetings (e.g. Church youth conferences? Mission trips? Revival meetings?)
• During your teen years, what exposure (if any) did you have to other church denominations or faith traditions? What was your reaction or response to these alternative expressions of faith?
• During your teen years or coming-of-age years, did any religious leader have a particular influence on you, either positively or negatively?
• During those years, did you read any books, view any movies, or hear any radio broadcasts that had a particular influence on you?
• During those years, what spiritual concerns (if any) did you have? (e.g. religious doubts, doctrinal questions, etc). Did you experience any kind of spiritual crisis? If so, what were the setting and the circumstances?
• In your adult years, as you learned more about your faith tradition, what misunderstandings (if any) did you need to correct?
• As a young or middle-aged adult, with what questions of faith (if any) did you struggle? Did you experience any times of doubt, confusion, disbelief? If so, what were the circumstances? What was the outcome? Were your spiritual concerns resolved or did they continue?
• What have been some of the key verses in your life? Why, or in what way, have these verses been important to you? What understanding or guidance have they provided?
• As you look back over the years, what have been your church involvements or faith-motivated community involvements?
• Have your spiritual pursuits or decisions been motivated by any sense of “calling” or vocation?
• If you currently are active in a faith community, how did you come to be involved with this particular one? What motivates you to continue in this involvement?
• Thinking back over the years of your life, which books (if any) have been especially influential in your spiritual growth?
• What has been the role of music in your life of faith?
• Parker J. Palmer, in his latest book of reflections On The Brink of Everything , recounts how over the past 50 years the writings of Thomas Merton have provided him with “friendship, love, and rescue.” In your reading and thinking, who has illumined the path and accompanied you on your journey”?]
• Have you been an active member in any form of Bible-study group or faith-based reading club?
• As you look back over the years of your life, have you experienced any accidents or major health challenges? If so, what were the circumstances and the outcome? What impact has it had on your faith, positive or negative?
• It is a reality of our later years in life that we confront physical challenges along with loss, sorrow and suffering. With what health issues have you dealt and what has been their lasting impact?How has your faith been shaped by or contributed to your experience? What has helped you to adapt to circumstances you cannot change? What has helped you to face adversity and to “bounce back”?
• As you look back over the years of your life, have others whom you love experienced any accidents or major health challenges? If so, what were the circumstances and the outcome? What impact did it have on your faith, positive or negative?

Stage 2: Reflecting on Your Faith-Journey Experiences 

In Stage 1, you have recalled and recorded a number of experiences in your journey of faith. Now, using the additional guide questions—or ones of your devising—to reflect on those experiences.

Again, do not worry about completing every question. Respond only to those that help you to connect with the experiences you have described.

• Soren Kierkegaard said that we live forward but understand life backward. As you look back over the years of your faith journey, have there been any pivotal turning points? If so, how have these moments of change or of transformation affected the development of your Christian faith? 
• We sometimes hear people speak of “20 / 20 hindsight,” seeing clearly in retrospect what previously was not apparent. Looking back on your faith journey, do you see a deeper meaning in any of your experiences during youth, young adulthood or middle years?
• Have you experienced the transition that Richard Rohr calls “falling upward”? If so, did the change come gradually or more abruptly as the result of an accident, an illness or a sudden loss? What did you learn as a result?
• During which of your experiences have you been pushed outside of your comfort zone? How did this contribute to your spiritual growth?
• Alcoholics Anonymous uses the phrase “Let go and let God.” Do you recall any time(s) in your life when you have had to give up all sense of control and let God provide the direction?
• Over the years how have your spiritual needs changed? Where do you now feel a need for help?
• In your spiritual journey and understanding of faith, where are you feeling challenged or uncertain?  What spiritual questions do you have in your present life? How are you seeking to answer them and address the challenges?
• In your experience, can questioning, doubt, and possible disbelief really be considered a “stage of faith”? What leads you to this response?
• Overall, do you feel that your life is “in balance”? If not, where do you find particular challenges?
• How do you cultivate and maintain a positive outlook?
• What now gives the most meaning and purpose to your life?
• At this point in your life, what especially gives you a sense of hope?
• Who or what in your life most contributes to your sense of happiness
• How would you describe your relationship with Jesus?
• How has God been at work in your life over the last few months?
• What does the word “salvation” mean to you?
• What does the word “discipleship” mean to you?
• How have you explained for yourself and others the presence of evil and suffering in our world?
• As you look back over the years, what has been the role of prayer in your life?
• Do you have any intentional practice of meditation or reflection? If so, what wisdom or insights have you gleaned about the ways of Being—e.g. meditating, praying, being awake and aware of the world around you? 
• How do you deal with life’s disappointments?
• When you are upset about something, how do you react or respond?
• Sometimes we are unfairly criticized by other people.. Have you had such a painful experience? If so, how have you handled it? Has the experience affected your faith journey?
• Throughout our lives we encounter conflict and hurtful situations. What have been your experiences with forgiving and being forgiven?
• Do you feel guilty over any aspect of your life—past or present? If so, how do you seek to deal with it?
• In what ways has your life become more inclusive—of people, of ideas, of feelings?
• When you encounter different perspectives, are you able to appreciate more than your own?
• What would you say is the essence of “God’s story”?
• The story of our lives is not yet complete, but as Christians we are part of a greater story. How do you connect your personal story, especially your faith story, with the Greater Story of God? How do you connect the “I am” of your self to the “Great I Am”? 
• In terms of your spiritual well-being, do you feel you have any “unfinished business”?
• As you look ahead to your spiritual life in future years, in what ways do you still hope to grow?
• If you had an opportunity to meet and chat with your young adult self, what advice might you now offer?

Stage 3: Re-reading Your Faith-Journey Experiences and Reflections

Frederick Buechner is an American novelist, minister and theologian. His central message, he said on more than one occasion, was “Listen to your life.” In his memoir Now & Then , Buechner wrote” “If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that he speaks to us largely through what happens to us…” (3).

Our goal, in this third stage of our Faith Journey writing activity, is to “listen to our life” as we re-read what we have written, our recollection of faith-journey experiences (in Stage 1) and our reflections on them (in Stage 2).

As the writer of those recollections and reflections, we of course know what we have written. Yet the act of reading our own writing helps us to shift our point of view, as Gary Kenyon and William Randall note in Restorying Our Lives: Personal Growth Through Autobiographical Reflection. In reading ourselves, they say, “we are effectively taking greater authorship of our lives, opening ourselves to fresh and freeing interpretations of who we are and what we can be” (129). 

In the faith-journey experiences that we have recollected we are the primary character . In our reflections on those experiences, we are the narrator.   Now, as the reader we again change our perspective. Essentially, we are “stepping back from the text of our lives” and “critiquing it with dispassionate yet affectionate concern…” 

Kenyon and Randall suggest that we re-read our responses asking a number of “restorying” questions:  

• What broad patterns can we observe?
• What have been the main events?
• What roles have we played?
• What view of ourself and of the world can we discern? 
• What philosophy of living shines through in our responses? 
• Where do we sense our experiences could have been different and possibly still could change?

“No one but ourselves can tell us who we are, or who we can become,” the authors write. That is why it is vital that we learn to “listen to our life.” Each of us must tell and read the story of our faith journey and then let the direction reveal itself on its own.

T.S. Eliot, a Nobel-Prize winning poet, wrote in his masterful “Four Quartets”: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” It is our hope and prayer that recalling our experiences, reflecting on them, and then re-reading them dispassionately but affectionately, we will arrive at a deeper knowledge of who we are and where we are in this place and time.

Stage 4 :  Recounting Your Story for Others

In Stages 1, 2, and 3, we have been writing for ourselves, focusing on our own personal growth. Our task in this fourth and final stage—should you choose to continue—will be to write for others. We will weave together our recollected experiences and our reflections on them, aiming to leave a legacy.

WHY LEAVE A LEGACY?

Our motives for leaving a spiritual legacy are not significantly different from those that lead us to bequeath money and property to people we love. Our spiritual legacy may be a more heartfelt gift. 

C.S. Lewis was a renowned scholar and a prolific writer on literary and religious subjects. He left a rich heritage, one chronicled by Terry Glaspey in The Spiritual Legacy of C.S. Lewis. We may not be scholars or gifted writers, but we too can share from the the bounty of our own journey of faith. We too have known the joys and challenges that come as we embrace the Christian faith and discern its relevance to the thorny issues of our day.

Some people worry that writing such an account is a sign of vanity. In fact, it is a sign of vitality. Gerontologists tell us that transmitting a legacy to future generations is one of the primary tasks of our elder years. If our relationship with God has been important in our lives, we need to communicate the varied nature of our spiritual experiences. We treasure the wisdom and guidance of Bible stories and we can trust God that our readers also will learn much from our personal stories.

Other people worry that their children or friends will not be interested. Sometimes these are the same people who express regret they did not ask more about their parents’ thoughts and experiences. It is true that younger family members and friends are busy with their lives, as we once were. Yet very likely the day will come when they will be grateful for all that we have shared and for the love that motivates our effort.

In his third memoir, Telling Secrets , Frederick Buechner has spoken of his reason for sharing the story of his faith. “My story is important not because it is mine,” he writes, “but because if I tell it anything like right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours. Maybe nothing is more important than that we keep track, you and I, of these stories of who we are and where we have come from and the people we have met along the way because it is precisely through theses stories in all their particularity….that God makes himself known to each of us most powerfully and personally.”  To lose track of our stories, Buechner says, is to be “profoundly impoverished not only humanly but also spiritually” (40). 

WHO IS IT FOR?

We have noted the personal value of writing about our Faith Journey—how our recollected experiences and subsequent reflections on them can afford us a fresh perspective on who we are at this age and stage of life.

Our writing also has a more public value. We might share it with family members, interested friends and anyone with whom we discuss matters of faith—our pastor; our church historian; our spiritual director, if we have one. Likely we already know the persons for whom the story of our faith journey will have most relevance, either now or later. 

“One travels in search of spiritual Truth much as one travels in search of scenic vista and grandeurs,” wrote Paul Hiebert in his memoir Doubting Castle , noting that he was “sharing experience with others so that they might not find themselves too much alone if they happen to be traveling the same way” (109). Hiebert’s words may remind us of those of the prophet Jeremiah, when Israelite exiles returned from Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem. “Set up markers for yourself,” Jeremiah declared, “make yourself signposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went…” (Jer. 31: 21).

For those of us who have made a difficult journey from spiritual exile back to belief, our faith-journey account may provide a kind of signpost, one that assures others “You are not alone and this is not the final destination.” 

Ultimately, good stories find their own audiences. Our main concern is to write as well as we can and with as much candour as we dare.

HOW DO I WRITE “MY FAITH JOURNEY”?

For many of us, writing about our faith journey will be easier than formulating a spiritual testament. A spiritual testament is mostly expository writing, an explanation or direct statement of one’s ideas and beliefs. Our faith journey, by contrast, is more of a story, a narrative account filled with incidents, encounters, experiences and feelings.

Each of us, whether we are deemed to be ‘talkative’ or the ‘strong, silent type,’ has considerable experience telling stories. We have been doing so most of our lives.

As well, we likely have generated at least a small body of material in our Stage 1 Recalling and our Stage 2 Reflecting. The challenge now is to determine some kind of order, to puzzle out which pieces fit where. It may help to remember that “writing is a process” and often a messy one. In moments of insight, we might see how one thought or experience connects to another, but often the organization is a matter of trial and error. 

A second challenge—perhaps a greater one—is to manage the length. This is the downside of a story being easier to write. What begins as a simple, straightforward narrative, five or six pages in length, grows as one adds further memories. Eventually, the account may be 45, 50 or 60 pages in length. This is not a bad problem to have. As a piece written for oneself, the length is to be celebrated, provided one does not feel overwhelmed by all of the material. One might even consider further expansion and the development of a book. Yet for many of us, as we think of family members and friends who may read our account, we desire something more concise.

As with expository writing, it helps if we can identify a central idea that runs through our many recollections and reflections. When John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress , wrote about his faith journey in 1666, he was mindful of God’s grace in his life. His account was titled Grace Abounding and most of his recollections reflected that theme. Katie Funk Wiebe, a Mennonite writer and college professor, transitioned into retirement only to find herself struggling with depression and a sense of ambivalence. As she sought to adapt her identity to new circumstances and find new ways of making sense and meaning, she felt she felt a need to articulate her experience “crossing the border into the land of aging” (9). The result was Border Crossing: A Spiritual Journey. 

Every story has a chronology, an inner time clock or calendar that keeps moving forward. Some writers “begin at the beginning,” and then doggedly work their way forward. It can be an exhaustive effort and, even worse, dull reading. A useful step, as you organize your material, is to determine the scope of your story. Will you review the development of your faith from earliest memories onward? Or will you highlight a particular period in your life, perhaps one that includes key moments and transformative experiences? Manitoba writer Betty Enns used the latter approach in Living Our Prayer: A Four-Year African Adventure into Faith . As the title implies, Enns’ memoir recounts four years of service that she and husband Bill did during with Mennonite Central Committee in Lesotho, Africa. Even so, her story draws in pivotal experiences that preceded and followed their missionary work.

When we listen to a young child retelling a story, we often hear the drum beat words “…and then …and then …and then .” We may smile, but in our own narrative writing we face a similar dilemma: How do we get beyond the next , next , next of our experiences ?   One step is to weave in our reflections, not as a sugar-coated moral but as a lesson learned, a moment of insight, or an aspect of growth.

Another more technical step follows the practice of ancient story tellers: begin in medias res (in the middle of things). Open your story or your particular scene as the action is happening. 

• Sitting on a jet plane at the Winnipeg airport, awaiting the take-off flight to Lesotho ( Living Our Prayer: Betty Enns)
• Waking at 4:30 a.m. in a mountain climber’s tent on the Palisade Glacier, the morning of a life-changing fall ( You Gotta Keep Dancin ’, Tim Hansel)
• Reading a “Dear Shopper” advertisement listing products for the aged ( Border Crossing : Katie Funk Wiebe)
• Contemplating an invitation to speak in a university “Last Lecture” series, knowing you have pancreatic cancer and it well might be your last lecture ( The Last Lecture : Randy Pausch)
• Receiving a nearly inaudible call from a stranger who said, “Your father is dead. He is killed in a car accident.” ( Dreams from My Father : Barack Obama)

You then fill in the “backstory” (background details the reader needs to know) using flashbacks.

In our telling of “My Faith Journey,” as with other stories, we bring a lifetime of practice.

Use it and trust it. And, like all writers, aim to keep learning. “I learn by going where I have to go,” the American poet Theodore Roethke wrote in “The Waking.” That wisdom applies to writing as well as life. You may be able to apply what you learn in the writing lessons found elsewhere in this course, but much of what we do we figure out as we go along.

May you recall readily, record fully, and reflect meaningfully.

Christian Faith: Ancient Religion Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Christianity is one of the many religions that exist in the world today. In addition, it is among ancient religions that were developed by patriarchs. It is largely based on the teachings and life of Jesus Christ. The events and teachings of Christ are depicted in the New Testament. As the world’s largest religion, Christianity has, and continues to influence the lives of many people around the world. The Christian faith has several beliefs and doctrines that are meant to influence people into living authentic lives. For example, ity teaches that Jesus is the son of God, he is the way to salvation, and he was sent by God (the Father) to save the world from sin. In addition, it has several precepts that form its foundation as both a religion and way of life. Examples of core Christian teachings include forgiveness, peace, love, salvation, resurrection, belief in Jesus Christ, the second coming of Christ, and worship.

Things that appeal to me about the Christian faith include the teachings on love, sacrifice, hope, salvation, ad peace. All the teachings of Christianity are based on one major precept: love. In all his teachings, Jesus maintained the importance of loving both God and fellow humans. Love is a force that is capable of transforming people, communities, nations, and the world. Christians are always reminded that love is the greatest responsibility that God gave man when he created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden. Jesus taught that love was the greatest commandment that God gave humans.

Through loving God, believers prepare themselves to love other humans despite their religious beliefs. Another precept is sacrifice. According to the Christian faith, God sacrificed Jesus for the sake of humanity. This was an overt expression of love. On the other hand, Christ sacrificed his life by suffering on the cross in order to save humanity. This teaching is very important because humans are required to make sacrifices in their everyday lives for the sake of other people.

On the other hand, Christianity gives hope to its followers by teaching that there will be an afterlife. This gives hope to followers because they live knowing that their good deeds will be rewarded in another life. Hope is a very important aspect of human life because it strengthens, motivates, and energizes people to do good deeds. In addition, the teaching on salvation gives life a purpose. Christians live their lives with the knowledge that the afterlife will give more happiness and fulfillment.

Finally, the Christian faith advocates for peace and coexistence among people. Jesus taught that it was important to love one’s enemies and avoid retaliation. In addition, he taught about the importance of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a core Christian teaching and belief that is a sure way to peace. With war and turmoil prevailing in today’s world, the teaching would go a long way in promoting peaceful coexistence in the world. Jesus taught that peacemakers are blessed and worthy in the presence of God.

Christianity lauds the importance of peace and forgiveness as requisites for an authentic life. Jesus proclaimed that he had given peace to his disciples after his resurrection. Christianity’s teaching on peace is based on the work that the Holy Spirit does through believers who transform the world. Christians have worked hard to bring peace in the world through promoting their teachings.

• Catholic Social Teaching Program
• The Latter Day Saint Movement
• Self-Forgiveness: The Step Child of Forgiveness Research
• Rene Descartes: A Brief Perspective
• Human Rights: Humanitarian Intervention
• Religion: Ecological Spirituality in Cross-Cultural Perspective
• Hell Debate in the Scripture
• The Status of Animals in Religion
• Hindu Twice-Born Ceremony
• Ludwig Feuerbach on Religion as a 'Projection'
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, May 13). Christian Faith: Ancient Religion. https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-faith/

"Christian Faith: Ancient Religion." IvyPanda , 13 May 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/christian-faith/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Christian Faith: Ancient Religion'. 13 May.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Christian Faith: Ancient Religion." May 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-faith/.

1. IvyPanda . "Christian Faith: Ancient Religion." May 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-faith/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Christian Faith: Ancient Religion." May 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/christian-faith/.

• Robert B. Sloan
• Communicator
• Curriculum Vitae
• Hamelin Stoop

5 Powerful Ways to Describe Your Faith

May 28, 2015 | Culture , The Bible , Theology

The Christian faith can be described using five distinct labels:

• Historical theology

Eschatology

• Religious experience

The Christian Faith is a Historical Theology

On the one hand, the Christian faith is a historical theology ; that is, it points to certain historic events. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the most central and significant of those events.  Because of the death of Jesus for our sins and resurrection from the grave we are offered reconciliation and peace with God.

The Christian faith is an eschatology . That is the theological term that refers to the last things. The Christian eschatology offers the hope of a resurrection life. Because of the historical theology–the events connected with the death and resurrection of Jesus–the Christian faith offers the promise of everlasting life in a new heaven and a new earth.  I discuss eschatology in my blog “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.”

Religious Experience

The Christian faith is also a religious experience . As Christian people, we come together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus for our sins. We believe that because Jesus has been raised from the dead He is alive and present in our worship. We may come to know God through Jesus Christ. We come together to be renewed in mind and spirit, to be instructed, and to be inspired and encouraged to live as the people we have been called to be.

The Christian faith involves a mission . We have good news to share with the world. The message of the crucified and risen Jesus is not relevant only to the western world, but it is a message that proclaims an exalted Lord who is Lord over all. We must not keep this news to ourselves.

We have a mission; we have been tasked with evangelism. It is critical and important for us to share the gospel by whatever means available to us–through our giving to missions, through our prayers, through our preaching, and through our living. We must at all costs tell the message of the crucified and risen Jesus.

The teachings of Jesus–the exhortation to morality, the exhortation to put away sin, to put away deception, to put away greed, to put away lying, to put away materialism, to put away lust and immorality–are inextricably linked with the commandment to teach others of His saving death and resurrection.  Read more about obedience and morality here.

People often forget this, but the Christian faith is also an ethic ; that is, it involves a way of living. It is ironic that this point is so often laid aside. I sometimes wonder if we neglect this facet of our faith because, since the time of the reformation, we have been careful to emphasize that we are saved by the grace of God and not by works.

We have been so careful, in fact, to emphasize the gift of salvation as the mercy of God extended to us through Jesus Christ, that we have sometimes made the same mistake that some of Paul’s opponents made. I’ll tell you more about that mistake, and Paul’s response to it, in my next post.

May God make us a people who are faithful to the commandments and teachings of Scripture and Our Lord Jesus Christ!

The preceding was adapted by Rachel Motte from a sermon Dr. Sloan delivered at Tallowood Baptist Church on July 15, 1990.

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About the Author

Robert B. Sloan is president of Houston Christian University in Houston, Texas. He has a passion for Christian higher education and the spiritual formation of young people for the glory of God, which can be seen in both his professional and personal life.

5 Simple Steps to Write Your Faith Story

And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.' - Mark 16:15 NKJV

That verse looks nice hanging on many church walls, but to live it out is a totally different story. Jesus wasn’t just being charming when He commanded us to share the Gospel and the hope that we have in Him!

Sharing your journey with God helps open the door for spiritual discussions. Sharing your story is a simple, practical and effective testimony to God’s existence and Christ’s power to change lives.

Related Post: 7 Questions to Help You Share Your Faith

One of the best things to remember is that God loves them (whoever ‘they’ are) more than you love them! God wants a relationship with them and He uses us to be the bridge! Therefore, we always want to be ready to share our faith when the opportunity comes around.

What is a Faith Journey?

Your faith journey is unique to you. It is your story about faith. Who were you before Jesus, what happened that caused you to follow Jesus, and how is your life different now?

This is your Christian testimony. Maybe it’s a dramatic story, or maybe it’s not. Perhaps you grew up in a Christian home with a happy childhood. That’s okay, because you still need a Savior. No matter what your past includes, it is your beautiful journey from death to life!

Prepare a 30 second, a 2-minute and 15-minute story of how God touched your life. Write out your faith story, following the promptings below, and use that to get comfortable talking about the way God has changed your life.

The Purpose of Sharing Your Story

• In a 3-5 minute story, express how you came to know God personally and how this changed your life. Don't focus solely on you –it’s really a story about God.
• Communicate the basis of the Christian faith in the context of your personal experience.
• Open the door for a more extensive conversation on spiritual matters.
• Explain to others the reason why you believe certain things or act in certain ways.

Five Simple Steps to Prepare your Faith Story

Begin with prayer, asking God to help you in this process. He is the only one who can truly change the heart of another person, so invite Him to be a part of this entire process.

2. Be authentic – be you!

Tell your story the way it happened – be real! Resist the temptation to compare your story with others. There is no need to embellish your story or dwell excessively on past sins. Your story is unique to your life, and an authentic testimony of what God has done in your life is powerful!

3. Be intentional.

Think in chapters or blocks and bridge them together. The blocks can be:

• What my life was like before I became a Christian
• How I became a Christian
• How Jesus has changed my life.

The three sections do not all have to be equal in length. Just identify one main idea or theme you want to communicate, and go from there.

4. Be concise.

Avoid language that sound overly religious. Many people in today's world have never been to church, so some words may be unfamiliar. You don't have to do a bunch of teaching - just share what God has done in your life.

Try to keep it short and interesting. Rambling can lose the real impact of your story. Remember: this is your faith story, not your entire life story!

5. Write it Out

Once you have your thoughts pulled together, it's time to write out your faith story. After it's on paper, review it to make sure there are no churchy words that may be confusing, or details that don't need to be included.

Double check to make sure the focus and glory is on God. He is the main character in your faith story.

How to Refine Your Faith Story

Having a scripted Christian testimony can feel inauthentic and forced, so keep praying and practicing until telling your story of faith becomes natural. Just share with joy how Jesus has changed your life!

When sharing your faith story, remember to try and relate to the person or people you are speaking with. Ask questions, truly listen, and love them without reservation. Then, if they are ready, pray with them for God to reveal Himself to them. And He promises that He will!

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” - Matthew 7:7

Remember, no matter what, God loves them and wants a relationship with us all.

Related Post: 5 Apps to Help Share the Gospel

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Do you want to learn how to share your faith without fear? Hear from our guest, Rick Hoppe, who’s had over 20,000 faith conversations!

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How to Share Your Faith

How to Be a Better Witness for Jesus Christ

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Many Christians are intimidated by the idea of sharing their faith. Jesus never intended for the Great Commission to be an impossible burden. God meant for us to be witnesses of Jesus Christ through the natural outcome of living for him.

How to Share Your Faith in God With Others

We humans make evangelism complicated. We think we must complete a 10-week course in apologetics before getting started. God designed an easy evangelism program. He made it simple for us.

Here are five practical approaches to being a better representative of the gospel.

Represent Jesus in the Best Possible Way

Or, in the words of my pastor, "Don’t make Jesus look like a jerk." Try to keep in mind that you are the face of Jesus to the world.

As followers of Christ, the quality of our witness to the world carries eternal implications. Unfortunately, Jesus has been poorly represented by many of his followers. I am not saying that I am the perfect Jesus Follower—I am not. But if we (those who follow the teachings of Jesus) could represent him authentically, the term "Christian" or "Christ-follower" would be more likely to illicit a positive response than a negative one.

Be a Friend by Showing Love

Jesus was a close friend to hated tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus . He was called " Friend of Sinners " in Matthew 11:19. If we are his followers, we ought to be accused of being a friend of sinners too.

Jesus taught us to how to share the gospel by showing our love to others in John 13:34-35:

"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (NIV)

Jesus didn't quarrel with people. Our heated debates are not likely to draw someone into the kingdom. Titus 3:9 says, "But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless." (NIV)

If we follow the way of love, we team up with an unstoppable force. This passage makes a strong case for being a better witness simply by showing love:

Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, NIV)

Be a Good, Kind, and Godly Example

When we spend time in the presence of Jesus , his character will rub off on us. With his Holy Spirit working in us, we can forgive our enemies and love those who hate us, just as our Lord did. By his grace we can be good examples to those outside of the kingdom who are watching our lives.

The Apostle Peter commended us to, "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. " (1 Peter 2:12, NIV)

The Apostle Paul taught young Timothy , "And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." (2 Timothy 2:24, NIV)

One of the finest examples in the Bible of a faithful believer who won the respect of pagan kings is the prophet Daniel :

Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God." (Daniel 6:3-5, NIV)

Submit to Authority and Obey God

Romans chapter 13 teaches us that rebelling against authority is the same as rebelling against God. If you don't believe me, go ahead and read Romans 13 now. Yes, the passage even tells us to pay our taxes. The only time we have permission to disobey authority is when submitting to that authority means we would be disobeying God.

The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego tells of three young Hebrew captives who were determined to worship and obey God above all others. When King Nebuchadnezzar commanded the people to fall down and worship a golden image he had built, these three men refused. Courageously they stood before the king who pressured them to deny God or face death in a fiery furnace. 

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose to obey God above the king, they didn't know with certainty that God would rescue them from the flames, but they stood firm anyway. And God delivered them, miraculously.

As a result, the ungodly king declared:

“Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way." Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to high positions in Babylon. (Daniel 3:28-30)

God opened a tremendous door of opportunity through the obedience of his three brave servants. What a powerful witness of God's power to Nebuchadnezzar and the people of Babylon.

Pray for God to Open a Door

In our eagerness to be witnesses for Christ, we often rush ahead of God. We may see what looks to us like an open door to share the gospel, but if we jump in without devoting time to prayer, our efforts may be futile or even counterproductive.

Only by seeking the Lord in prayer are we led through doors that God alone can open. Only by prayer will our witnessing have the desired effect. The great Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about effective witnessing. He gave us this trustworthy advice: 

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. (Colossians 4:2-3, NIV)

More Practical Ways to Share Your Faith By Being an Example

Karen Wolff of Christian-Books-For-Women.com shares some practical ways to share our faith simply by being an example for Christ.

• People can spot a phony from a mile away. The absolute worst thing you can do is say one thing and do another. If you aren't committed to applying Christian principles in your own life, you will not only be ineffective but will be seen as insincere and phony. People aren't as interested in what you say, as they are in seeing how it's working in your life.
• One of the best ways to share your faith is to demonstrate the very things you believe by staying positive and having a good attitude even in the middle of a crisis in your own life. Remember the story in the Bible about Peter walking out onto the water when Jesus called to him? He kept walking above the water as long as he stayed focused on Jesus. But once he focused on the storm, he sank.
• When the people around you see the peace in your life, especially when it seems like you're surrounded by storms, you can bet they'll want to know how to get what you got! On the other hand, if all they see is the top of your head as you sink into the water, there's not a whole lot to ask.
• Treat people with respect and dignity, no matter the circumstances. Whenever you have the opportunity, show how you don't change how you treat people, no matter what. Jesus treated people right, even when they mistreated Him. People around you will wonder how you're able to show this kind of respect for others. You never know, they may even ask.
• Find ways to be a blessing to others. This not only plants amazing seeds for a harvest in your own life, it shows others that you're not a phony. It shows that you live what you believe. Saying you're a Christian is one thing, but living it in tangible ways every day is something else. The Word says, "They'll know them by their fruit."
• Don't compromise your beliefs. Situations happen every day where compromise is not only possible, but many times is expected. Show people that your Christianity means living a life of integrity . And oh yes, that means you tell the sales clerk when she undercharged you for that quart of milk!
• The ability to forgive quickly is a very powerful way to show how Christianity really works. Become a model of forgiveness . Nothing creates division, hostility, and turmoil more than an unwillingness to forgive the people who hurt you. Of course, there will be times when you are absolutely right. But being right doesn't give you a free pass to punish, humiliate, or embarrass someone else. And it most certainly doesn't eliminate your responsibility to forgive.

Hodges, D. (2015). "Bold Witnesses for Christ" (Acts 3-4); Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 459). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.

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My church is closing, and I don’t know what comes next — for me, or America

I researched the decline of organized religion while having a front-row view of the change in my own life.

By Ryan Burge

How do you get rid of a pulpit? Or a communion table?

Does anyone want 30-year-old choir robes?

What do you do with the baptismal records of a church that dates back to the 1860s?

I never thought I would be asking myself these questions, but here I am, like many other pastors across the country as the number of Americans who belong to a faith community shrinks and churches that once housed vibrant congregations close.

What’s happened at my own church is especially poignant since in my day job I research trends in American religion. And when I first became a pastor, right out of college, there were ominous signs, but I did not foresee how quickly the end would come, hastened by a pandemic.

I first took the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon, Illinois, in the fall of 2006. The church was a part of the American Baptist denomination, a mainline tradition that welcomed women into leadership and tended to take a more moderate stance on theological and social issues. I was 24 years old, pursuing a master’s degree in political science, and I needed a job that would give me the flexibility to focus on my studies. It seemed like a good fit at the time, both theologically and logistically, although it was inconceivable to me then that I would still hold the same position into my early 40s.

I preached in a sanctuary that could easily accommodate 300 people. That first year or two, I could count about 50 people scattered around the pews. It felt sparse, but not empty — a relief, since I wasn’t the most credentialed pastor in the history of the church. As an undergraduate, I took a couple of classes that focused on theology and ministry, but that was it. I did my best to not say something heretical during my Sunday sermon. What I lacked in education and experience, I was sure I could make up with enthusiasm. There’s an apocryphal quote from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, that I thought about often in those first couple of years: “Light yourself on fire with passion, and people will come from miles to watch you burn.”

I tried to light that match every Sunday morning. People didn’t show up.

I don’t know if the members of my congregation thought I was going to be the one who turned around the fortunes of the church, but there was lots of talk of growth in those first few hopeful years. Many faithful members had been sitting in those pews for decades. They had seen the church in its heyday, when there were so many people in Sunday School that they had to install movable dividers in the fellowship hall so they could add more classrooms in the 14,000-square-foot building.

But the church’s membership began to dwindle in the 1970s and 1980s. If you talked to five members of my church about this period of time, you would get five different reasons for the decline: An ill-advised sermon drove off a few key families. Lots of kids who grew up in the church went off to college and didn’t return to rural Illinois because of the lack of employment opportunities. Other churches in town seemed more attractive with their drums, guitars and high-energy worship. Regardless of the cause, the membership of First Baptist dipped below 100 by the late 1990s.

After a couple of years, the discussion about revitalizing the church began to grow quiet. A sense of resignation started to creep in. I came to a disheartening conclusion: I wasn’t going to be able to turn things around. I think at that point most members knew in their hearts that the end was coming for the church. We were just all afraid to speak that truth into existence. It was better to keep our heads down and focus on the next worship service and not worry about what would happen in three or five years.

The rise of ‘The Nones’

On one of my first Sundays as pastor, the older adults had invited me to their Sunday School class. We sat around a table with Styrofoam cups of coffee and tried to find common ground across a five-decade generational divide. They were glad to have me, and I was honored that they trusted me enough to be their pastor. About a year ago, I was looking at an old church directory and realized that every person in that classroom back in 2006 had met their eternal reward over the previous 15 years, and I had presided at many of their funerals.

But as my church was dying, my academic career was starting to accelerate. I began to plunge headlong into data about American religion. I had earned a Ph.D. in political science with a dissertation that focused on religion and politics while I held the pulpit at First Baptist, and I had landed a job at a university that was within driving distance of my home base. I could be a professor during the week and pastor on the weekends.

I wrote a couple of academic articles about American religion in an effort to secure my employment in academia, but I didn’t want to produce scholarship that only a dozen or so people in my subfield would read.

So I decided to take the things I was seeing in the data and help the average person understand the changing American religious landscape. I began posting graphs on my Twitter account. Most of them got little attention until I created a simple line graph that traced American religion between 1972 and 2018.

The point was simple: The share of Americans who were nonreligious was now the same size as evangelicals. The post went viral, and the trajectory of my life changed. That graph appeared in nearly every major media outlet in the United States, and it led to me writing a book about the rise of nonreligious Americans, a book entitled “ The Nones .”

What I was seeing in the data was unmistakable and mapped perfectly onto what I was seeing every Sunday — mainline Protestant Christianity was in near free fall, and the numbers of nonreligious were rising every single year. Members of the media found my career combination of pastor and social scientist fascinating. I can’t count the number of times I was asked what it was like to have both jobs. My response was a shrug of the shoulders and the simple statement, “It doesn’t seem odd to me. It’s all I’ve ever known.”

Soon, I was being asked to comment on stories about religion and politics for a number of prominent media outlets. Journalists would thank me for helping provide them with ideas for stories. I was being asked to speak in front of crowds of hundreds of people about the past and future of American religion. When I was asked what motivated me to continue to do this kind of work, all I could say was, “I’m just trying to help other people see the big picture in American religion.”

What I was really trying to do was to convince myself that the rapid decline of my church wasn’t my fault.

A sense of letting people down

I always had a nagging sense that I was never supposed to be a pastor. That I took the job at First Baptist for the wrong reasons. That I didn’t believe enough. That I didn’t try hard enough. That there was a way to revitalize that little congregation in Mount Vernon, but I just wasn’t willing to do the work to make it happen.

I knew I couldn’t say that part that out loud.

While my online platform was rising and I was being offered a variety of opportunities to speak and write, things were continuing to decline at my little church. I would come from home from speaking at a conference that had a couple hundred in attendance to preach before a nearly empty sanctuary on Sunday morning.

The church members decided that it was best for us to move from that giant space to a large classroom in the education wing of the building. We bought a small sound system and set up chairs around a pulpit at the front of the room. Looking back on that time now, it was my favorite period of pastoring at the church. The room was small enough that it felt intimate. When we sang, it filled up the space. Saying “The Lord’s Prayer” together meant so much more when I could hear 20 voices reciting those same lines back at me in unison.

However, there was a looming problem that I would make mention of in our quarterly business meeting and then move on to other matters — we were running out of money.

The building was huge. It was built to accommodate hundreds of worshippers and dozens of Sunday School classes. Many rooms had not been used in decades. We just didn’t need the space anymore. What had once been a point of pride for the church was now little more than an albatross around our necks. The utility bills in winter were larger than my salary. The 40-year-old boiler that heated the church could stop working at any moment.

So with a tremendous amount of trepidation, we decided to put the building on the market. I clearly remember the day that I had to post the information on social media. I felt so ashamed that we had to publicly announce the fact that we couldn’t afford to keep our church home anymore. There were countless members of First Baptist who had donated their time and their labor to construct that building in the 1960s. They had given over and above their tithe to finance the bricks, the carpet and the pews. I couldn’t get over the feeling that I was letting all of them down. I still can’t.

How to sell a church, 101

There is no handbook for how to sell a church building, and none of us were prepared for how exhausting that process would be. One day, I got a call from a real estate developer who was interested in buying the property. While he never said it outright, and I never asked, I realized that his plans included razing the building and using the property for a subdivision or a commercial opportunity. I told him that I appreciated the interest, but I would only be in contact if we had no other options.

We had about a dozen groups tour the property; most never followed up. In the end, we got one cash offer — for $150,000. The pastor said that God had instructed him that they could go no higher. Our church council politely declined. That sum would have made it virtually impossible for us to move to another facility for any period of time. We were getting desperate.

Then we were thrown a bit of a lifeline. Another church in town had started a private Christian school and quickly outgrown their space. They wanted to take over ownership of the building. The details of the agreement were complicated, but the outcome was fairly straightforward: The school would use the building during the week, but we would have access on the weekends for worship. That’s how we continued to exist over the last five years. We had no building to worry about; we could just gather together on Sundays and try to limp along for as long as we wanted. It felt like we had been granted a divine stay of execution.

For a couple of years, we were fine. We would have two dozen people on a good Sunday, enough to make us feel like we were still a congregation. But every six or eight months, we would lose a key member, then another, then another. That two dozen became 15, then 12, then 10. As attendance dwindled, so did our bank accounts. I didn’t need to put together a statistical model to tell my members when the bank balance was going to hit zero. They could do the math.

The last Sunday

I’ve heard several people say that organizations die slowly, then all at once. That’s what happened to us.

At the start of the year, we went four Sundays without meeting. Illness ran through our thinning ranks, and one Sunday the wind chill was below zero, and we knew that our folks didn’t want to get out. When we met again in February, things felt different. We were lucky to get to double digits, and any enthusiasm that existed before had seemed to evaporate. It was time to talk about closing.

After Easter, we held a business meeting, one that had been playing out in my mind for a decade or more. The minutes of that meeting are sparse, taking up just a single piece of paper. There was no discussion of whether we should close or not. We just decided on the logistics.

We picked a date: July 21. That would be the last time that the faithful few of First Baptist of Mount Vernon, a church founded by hardscrabble pioneers in 1868, would gather together to worship.

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I get asked all the time, by pastors, denominational leaders and interested observers, about ways to grow a church. I guess people assume that since I spend my days digging through religion data, that I should have been able to uncover the secret to getting people back into religion.

It takes everything in my power to not say to them, “My church went from 50 people to less than 10 under my watch. If I knew anything about how to grow a church I would have done it by now.”

But I know where they are coming from because many of them are in the same boat that I was in. They are watching the waves lap over the side of their rickety vessel every day. The bucket to bail out the water is too small to do any good. Still, thousands of pastors are trying to keep the boat seaworthy by any means necessary, even as more cracks begin to emerge in the hull. They sense that they have a hopeless mission, but believe that God has called them to be faithful, not necessarily successful.

Last Sunday, I stood behind the pulpit of First Baptist Church for the last time.

I asked the people gathered there for prayer requests, and we sang “Happy Birthday” to anyone who is celebrating in the coming weeks. We said the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed together and sang a few favorite hymns along with the Doxology and the Gloria Patri. I stumbled through a sermon that will likely be soon forgotten.

Then, after the hymn of invitation, I raised my hand to the congregation and gave them one final benediction from the book of Numbers:

The Lord bless you

and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

and give you peace.

Then I told them once more, “Go in peace to love and serve your neighbors.” I know that I may never see some of those people ever again.

I walked out those doors into the blinding heat of a summer day in southern Illinois and stepped into a future where I don’t know where I will go to church next Sunday, or even if I want to go. Frankly, I don’t know if my own faith will survive, and I’m not sure if the church in America will be there for the next generation like it was for me.

And I’m terrified because for the first time in my spiritual life, I don’t know what’s next.

Ryan Burge is an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. He is the author or co-author of four books, including “The Nones,” “20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America” and “The Great Dechurching.” He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Politico, and has appeared on “60 Minutes,” where Anderson Cooper called him “one of the leading data analysts of religion and politics in the United States.” He was the pastor of an American Baptist Church in Illinois for more than 17 years.