5 Practical Ways to Grow Your Faith During The Pandemic
As the coronavirus pandemic continues with still no real idea of how long before things return to any type of new normalcy, staying in "survival mode" will drive all of us crazy.
Instead of simply trying to survive and get through life as it currently is until things get back to normal, what would it look like to thrive instead? What would it look like to change our mindset from survival to growth?
Specifically, what would it look like for your faith to be stronger than before this all began? The good news is it really can be. Here are five practical ways you can grow your faith during this pandemic.
1. Schedule your time with God every weekday morning
It's not enough to "commit" to doing this. If you want something done, it must go on your calendar. And a calendar is like a budget; if you don't have one you will never be as productive and efficient with your as you could be, just like your financials will never be near as in good of a place without a budget.
If you're like me, you suffer from wanting to do too much. Which means you don't like wasting time and like to get things done. Because of that, my time with the Lord is always better and more consistent when it is on my calendar, not simply when I "know" in my mind I will start my day that way.
And if we want to not simply survive and get through this pandemic but want to be stronger than before it began, we have to prioritize time with Him. Not because God wants us to do things to appease Him. He doesn't. However, He does meet those who earnestly seek Him, and it is for our benefit that we pursue Him.
For me, I'm not a morning person. With young kids, it can be hard to do this well at my home. One option is to get up really early in the morning to have guaranteed time alone as Christina does. What works better for me is to do this first thing in the morning when I get to my office. This is why it is even more vital that I schedule it, so I am not tempted to rush through it or skip it altogether.
You can start with something as short as five minutes to help you build this habit. The good news is that a vibrant relationship with God is not found in some secret and special formula. Consistent time with Him is an easy and helpful place to start.
Now that you have it scheduled, what should you do during that time?
2. Follow a reading plan
You can randomly open your Bible every day and read a chapter wherever you land. But haphazard plans lead to haphazard (and often incomplete) results. Instead of trying to figure out what to read each day, follow a reading plan that takes the guesswork out for you.
There a plenty of resources for this. You could simply commit to starting in a Biblical book and reading a chapter a day (for example). But I have found having a plan helps me stay focused and committed. A great place to start is by looking at the YouVersion Bible reading plans. YouVersion is accessible via an app or web browser, with countless reading plans available.
The less you have to think about what you will do with your time the more likely you will actually do it.
Remember, it's not about whatyou read as much as it is about meeting with God. Reading plans can help you spend less time on what you will do and more on who you are connecting with.
3. Use an audio Bible
We've probably all seen debates (or at least thought about it to ourselves) about whether or not listening to audiobooks "counts" the same as actually reading a book. So does using an audio Bible "count" the same as actually reading the Bible?
Who cares.
And yes, I just used a period instead of a question mark because that was a statement and not a question. Spending time with Jesus is not about making it "count" according to some arbitrary standard. It's about growing our faith so that it will be stronger than ever before.
Personally, I do both. I spend some time reading and then I'll listen to an audio Bible of a different passage. Many people will even play an audio Bible while reading that same passage at the same time. The goal is to find what is most helpful for you and start there.
My favorite resource for this is the Dwell App. Dwell costs $30 a year, but it has different voices and accents you can choose from as well as different types of music you can play in the background. But there are plenty of free options, and YouVersion is again a great free alternative.
4. Pray with a preorganized list
Prayer is the one thing we all would say is important, and yet something we all would say we don't do enough of. What I am about to say is no surprise, but the biggest reason we struggle with prayer is that we have no plan.
It can be hard to focus during silence, and when we do pray we seem to ask for the same things every time. So what does it look like to plan your prayers?
Here is a post about four simple steps that I have taken for a more vibrant prayer life (three-minute read). What it all comes down to is planning for what you are going to pray for before you pray. As well as continuing to move through your list for every time you find yourself getting distracted no matter how quickly you have to go.
What if you can only go ten seconds before losing focus on a prayer item? That’s ok. I’ll take someone praying for me for ten seconds every day over nothing any day of the week.
As I mention in my post about prayer, I use a Google sheet with different tabs for each "section" (family, personal, people, New City Church, etc.). That way I know what I am praying for and, because I have a plan, am guaranteed to spend time actually praying.
5. Tell someone about this and invite them to do it with you
While trusting in Jesus and the grace that He alone offers is a personal decision, Scripture has no category of following Jesus alone. Believers are repeatedly called to be in community with one another, not isolated from each other. Therefore believers need to be, and are commanded to be, in community with one another because we are created in God’s image, and God is a relational God.
To that end, one of the best things you can do is to tell someone about your desire to use this time during the coronavirus pandemic to not simply get through it, but to use this time to grow your faith stronger than before all of this began.
The good news is that the vast majority of us have at least some more available time on our hands, and I can't think of a better and more profitable way to use it. Encourage a friend to join you in this, you both will be better for it.
The strength of our faith is our decision
Here's the dirty little secret about spiritual vitality; our faith is as strong as we want it to be. God is a gracious and loving God and gladly meets those who desire Him. He will not force Himself upon us, and there is no special formula to somehow gain His favor. Like any relationship, it takes time to strengthen.
If you want your faith to grow during this pandemic, it absolutely can. All you have to do is to commit, but you do have to commit. God is looking for people to be a light in the midst of the darkness, and he is looking to use people like you.
You can do it. Let's be stronger than before together.