Here are some ways that I've employed to help me get through those difficult times ...
How to Strengthen Our Sometimes-Weak Faith
(in no particular order)
Admit that your faith is weak to God in prayer. Just acknowledging it is the first step in dealing with it. He's not going to belittle you or scold you for needing help in this area. He loves us and wants us to come to Him with everything!
Study your Bible! As Christians, I hope you're a faithful student of God's Word. If so, you have a whole book of remembrances of how God has been faithful to His people throughout history. If you're not a faithful student of God's Word, then this is a good time to delve in and learn about God's faithfulness.
Along the same lines, take a look at your life and acknowledge God's faithfulness in your past. A thumb through my prayer journal is a faith builder. Seeing how God has answered past prayers is another reminder that He is faithful.
Listen to spiritual songs that build your faith. Create a playlist of faith building go-to songs ready to hit the button and play.
Ask God to strengthen your faith ... the father of a demon possessed child did and God did!
Mark 9:23-25 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”
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What can you add to this list? Let's build a resource to put into play when we're struggling with our faith.
May God be gloried in all that we do,
patsy @ From This Heart Of Mine
(c) 2023 by Patsy Norwood ~ All Rights Reserved.
Right now I don't feel like my faith is weak but that I need to fix everything for myself. This morning it really hit home to me how much I have been trying to do that instead of handing it over to God and leaving it there. I feel like the word for me is trust. When Mom passed away in July I suddenly felt like the caretaker of my siblings because I am the oldest. My alternative health care provider even told me last week that it is effecting my health. So, I seem to be fighting my way out of deep woods and looking for how to leave everything in God's hands and not feel responsible for the choices and lives of my family including some of our children. For me this had to start with a confession of not trusting my Father God to take care of it all and then asking Him to work in the lives of those whom I love and am so constantly worried about. After so many years of seeing how He can take it all and work it all for good, I know that He has all of this, too. The thing is getting that truth from my head to my heart.
ReplyDeleteLana, I could literally have written every word you did except for the part about the alternative health care provider. For me, trust and faith go hand in hand. I like how you said, 'the thing is getting that truth from my head to my heart.' During discouraging times, I feel the same way. That's when I major on the things I listed in this post. It's a mind over matter thing, because there are times when I surely don't feel it. The thing for me, is that there are going to be times when it's not in my heart and that's when it becomes a faith issue. It's during those hurting times that my faith feels so weak and inadequate and that's when I have to humble myself and go running to God. I cannot do this on my own. I need Him to hold me up and mentally together during those anxious hurting times, during the times that I am so weary from praying for the same things and the same people over and over and over again. It's during those times that I need Him to strengthen my weak faith. The battle belongs to the Lord, remember! I hope this makes sense.
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