Keeping A Healthy Faith This Season
This season marks the period where Jesus admonished his disciples to keep the faith the most. It was within this period that Jesus handed over all his work to his disciples and charged them to go into the world and teach the gospel and make disciples of him also. What does it mean to ‘keep the faith?’
In the simplest terms, to keep faith means to continue to have confidence in, to trust, and to support a course, someone, or something even when it becomes increasingly challenging to do so.
Without doubt, this season, as Christians especially, and as a world plagued by various pestilences, it is critical for us more than ever, to keep the faith of the gospel of Christ Jesus. Not only us but also to teach it to everyone around us. [matt 28:18-20].
But first, how do you keep your Christian faith healthy and fervent at such a time as this?
How to Keep Your Faith Strong and Fervent
In life, we have to go through different seasons. Some are amazing-wonderful, and others are bumpy and coarse. It could be a hard time at work or with finances, a challenging parenting experience, a struggling marriage, or the current global pandemic, etc.
Whatever the challenge is as we mark this year’s Easter celebration, it is crucial to understand that the Lord has given us victory, and we must work therein.
In the book of [1 Kings 18:41], amid a prolonged season of a mighty drought, Elijah asks Ahab to get up and make merry because he (allegedly) heard the sound of an abundance of rain.
The Bible explains to us that faith comes from hearing the word of God [Romans 10:17]. Jesus, in [Matt 17:20], also teaches us that should we have faith as little as a mustard seed, we can say unto the mountain, “Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto us.”
Clearly, we can see that faith is synonymous with hearing. Hence what we, as the children of God, hear, is altogether vital. What are you listening to? What are you hearing?
It is critical for the child of God who seeks to maintain a healthy Christian faith to clear-out their spiritual hearing airways so they can only hear through “faith,” which cometh from the word of God.
The faithless Christian is NOT a healthy Christian. Also, the Bible lets us know that it is impossible to please God without faith [Heb. 11:6]. Therefore, faith is critical; it is an essential nutrient needed in large quantities by every believer in order to enjoy an abundant Christian life and to please God.
Faith and The Word of God
The most critical elements that are vital to a person’s wellbeing are usually provided in sufficient amounts through the vitamins supplied in a balanced diet. Similarly, faith is a critical element for a continued healthy Christian life.
God expects us, as His children, to lead a healthy Christian life. We can do this by taking sufficient amounts of a balanced diet of spiritual nourishment through His word daily, despite whatever economic or health challenges the world throws our way.
The word of the Lord must not depart from our mouth, and we must meditate upon it day and night [Josh. 1:7,8]. We must instill God’s word in our hearts and live upon it daily [Psalm 119:161], [Psalm 119:11].
This way, we can lead a life of abundance in Christ Jesus no matter what temporary situation we may find ourselves, Hallelujah! [Psalm 119:105].
Putting Your Faith into Works
It is essential to understand that having faith alone without putting it to work is meaningless. Just like the muscles in the human body need to be exercised; similarly, our faith must be exercised and nourished to avoid it becoming malnourished and feeble.
In the book of [James 2:26], the Bible makes us understand that just as our bodies are dead without breath, so also will our faith be dead without works. These works are not necessarily works of the law of God. Instead, they refer to those activities carried out by Christians to demonstrate their faith in God. Works of faith are counted for as righteousness, and God’s abundant blessings accompany them [James 2:18-25].
The underlying question is, how can you begin to nourish, exercise, and demonstrate a healthy faith as a child of God?
*Before answering this question, let’s return to our earlier notes about hearing. Remember that faith comes first by hearing God’s word. The word enables works of action as were demonstrated by Abraham through obedience, and by Elijah, who heard the sound of an abundance of rain, and acted.
As children of God, we can demonstrate the works of faith in numerous ways. Some ways we can do this include abiding by the word of God, participating in fellowship with brethren, and definitely by continuously declaring the good news of the gospel of Christ Jesus.
Nourishing and Sustaining a Healthy Faith
Your faith in Christ Jesus will continue to grow abundantly the more you nurture and exercise it. This season is the time for believers to wake up from their slumber as the time is drawing nearer for our salvation. We must continue to listen and pay keen attention to God’s word, build our faith, and increase our works of faith as children of God.
Some key steps to achieving this include:
- Love — by loving one another in Christ Jesus
- Meditation — spending quality time to meditate and listen to Christian material, including gospel songs, sound teachings of the word of God, studying God’s word daily, etc.
- Prayer — we must never cease to pray fervently, both individually and as a church, for the body of Christ
- Giving — children of God must always be willing to give to the furtherance of God’s word and will on earth. Also, we must provide to the less privileged and those in need
These few exercises and more will help sharpen the health of your Christian faith to enable you to build a more solid, compacted, and unbending confidence in the word of God through this trying season. God bless you and keep you today and always, Amen.
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