Faith With A Plan! Part One
Do you often feel that your faith is just coasting by? Imagine having a faith so strong that it guides every single choice you make, shapes your character and actions, and radiates onto every person that you come in contact with. How do we get to that depth of faith? Intentionality! “Just going to Church” isn’t enough for a vibrant, intentional, and deep faith filled life. We must be intentional, and use goals to transform our “good intentions” into tangible actions towards the person that we want to become in our faith. If you are feeling like your faith is only coasting, then continue reading part one for ideas to easily set your own goals for having an intentional and deep faith filled life! Then join me again over the next two weeks, as we continue to created our Faith With A Plan.
Step One: A Framework, Not Feelings
Bible Verse: James 2:17 - “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
For anyone that has lived a few years, we know that life is full of emotions. It’s filled with stresses, disappointments, and pain. The world has had all of these since the day sin entered the world. And since the day that sin came into the world, it hasn’t stopped. Sin, and negative emotions go together because they entered the world when sin did. Our emotions are based off our experiences that we go through, or situations in our past that have brought us deep pain. Those emotions will go through so many changes from day to day. Our emotions are fleeting. We can go from happy to heartbroken in a matter of minutes, because of things that we go through. So what do emotions have to do with a deeper faith?
An intentional faith is one, that keeps on even through the fleeting emotions. It is not dependent on a “feeling” of having a relationship with God (see my blog here for more ideas on how to deal with this issue: click here). It is also not based on a “feeling” of having a relationship with those we worship at the Church building with. An intentional Faith is a God seeking faith. To have that deeper relationship with God, we must get to the point of being able to continue towards God even in the stressful or busy moments. It’s all about a TRUE commitment, not a “just on Sunday’s” or “when I am feeling like it” commitment! When we use our feelings as our foundation, then our relationship with God will never be a deep one. It will be a fleeting one that is shallow. Only an intentional one can become the framework towards that vibrant and fulfilling relationship that we all hope for. So many believers have good intentions, but they don’t know how to focus those good intentions to make them powerful steps in their journey homeward to Heaven.
The first thing that we need to do to turn our good intentions into powerful steps is to — Make a Plan! What are your goals with your relationship with God? Do you have any? I know that I didn’t until five year ago. I wasn’t thinking bigger picture. I was just coasting. I had good intentions, and I tried to do some Bible reading and prayer daily, but I wan’t actually evaluating myself or making plans of improvement. I wasn’t letting the Bible or my conversations with God truly hit in my heart.
In the church as a whole, actually making plans for improvement is not a common thing. I have grow up attending the Lord’s church all of my life, and for the most part, everything was about things that a Christian “should be” or “not be,” without ever offering ideas of how to actually improve. This blog and the next two in this series will be ideas for how to start actually achieving this lifestyle. We MUST make God our framework by making a plan to be more intentional with our faith before we can even start to achieve the attributes that the Christian lifestyle should have. So to start planning your way towards this lifestyle, you need to sit down and write out the answers to these questions:
Where are you at right now in your faith? Answer honestly! Use this question to list how often you pray every day, how many times per week you spend in God’s Word (not just skimming or listening to an audio version)? How often you get together with your church family outside of worship per month? How often you attend church (are you missing Sunday evenings, Wednesday evenings, or any other events)? We need to evaluate where we are now in these so we can start to see if we are improving or regressing. We can’t know if we are getting better if we are not already aware of what we are doing right now.
What is taking up most of your time right now? This needs to be a list of all of the things that take up your time each day, and list how much time they typically take up. How long are you spending at your job? How long do you spend on social media/your phone? How long do you spend with hobbies or watching shows? How long you spend in prayer? How long you spend in Bible study? You need to honestly list out how you are spending your time each day for a week. This needs to be an eye opening realization to see how you are actually spending your extra time. We then need to look at how we can eliminate those things consuming our extra time, to replace then with more time spent with God. Or even repurpose them, by making them faith centered! Do you have a hobby that you do often, that can now be used as prayer time, as you do the hobby? Can you turn your morning commute into one spent in God’s Word, instead of music with a bad message on the radio. Can you repurpose your meal time, to be one where you are intentionally sending encouraging text messages to your fellow church members? Yes, we will need to give up more time, but we can also repurpose time that we are already spending doing other things. Use this time answering this questions deciding what you need to cut back on your time spent, and what you can repurpose!
Where do you want to be in your faith? Have you ever asked yourself what your goals are in your faith? Yes, the end goal is Heaven, but what about the plans you make to get there. The Christian lifestyle is one that requires change on our part out of our absolute love for God. But do we have an absolute love for Him? If you are not fully committed because of your devotion, then make that your first goal. You can’t plot your way forward without already being in love with your Creator. After that what are your plans? How do you plan to keep up with that relationship? Think through all of these things. We can’t expect to have a vibrant and deep relationship with God if we are only coasting from Sunday to Sunday. What things are we doing now to prove that we aren’t coasting? Make plans for who you want to be in your faith? You can even get inspiration for who you want to be from someone that you look up to in their walk with God. Make a vision for your life! Make a list of traits that you want every decision in your life to be filtered though (My vision for my ministries in the “About the Author” section at the bottom of this blog, if you need ideas).
Ideas for A Framework Not Feelings:
Start your morning off with an intentional prayer asking to remain intention with your time all during the day.
Set timers for certain activities that take up too much of your time, limit them if you need to.
Honestly and openly, answer the three points above to evaluate your spiritual condition (do this frequently, not just one time, to see how you have progresses or regressed).
Start a gratitude journal to keep you centered with the frequent reminder that God gave you literally every blessing, so we need to be grateful to Him.
Every week set goals for your Spiritual growth (with your Bible study, with your discipleship with your fellow Christians, with your prayer, or with Non-believers).
Start setting aside a certain time each day to work on your relationship with God.
Put up sticky not reminders all over your house to remind you to make time.
Set goals, but let them be numerical. Instead of setting a goal like: “Pray to God more this week.” Change the goal to one like this: “Pray to God three times each day.” The idea is giving yourself a gage to follow, that way you know if you are achieving the goal or not.
Don’t overwhelm yourself, work on one to two task at a time, until you are doing them consistently.
Don’t expect to “feel” different as you are working on the goals, as you are working remember consistency is key, and growth is taking a step forward no matter how you are “feeling.”
Conclusion:
Don’t be afraid to take this first step, even if you are doing it alone. Know that you are doing this for a deeper relationship with God, and to find your true calling and purpose in life. Put any “feelings” keeping you from a vibrant relationship with God aside this week! Don’t just coast from Sunday to Sunday!! When we make our faith more intentional, then it will be a faith that is truly fulfilling. I am so excited for you to take the first step with me this week. I hope this week as you start to think about your faith and how you spend your time, that you will start to also make more plans for an intentional relationship with God. Then as you work on becoming more intentional this week, remember to tune in next week for the second part of our series, to find out what is next for your Faith With A Plan!
About the Author: My name is Katie, and I’m a Church of Christ Preacher’s wife in Kentucky. I am also a proud homeschool mom to two brilliant boys. I love to craft, and make and bind my own notebooks. I also make a weekly podcast show called “Just Bible No Fluff",” where I skip all of fluffy extras and hop right into a short yet impactful exegetical study of the scripture. My mission and vision in life is this: “To empower women Spiritually by enhancing their skills in deep Bible study, equipping them to effectively teach the Gospel to others, and guiding them in cultivating Spiritual growth beyond the Church building.”