How to Grow in Faith: 5 Things You Can’t Take With You on the Journey
I sit beneath a salmon sunset and tell God I want to go deeper with him. A certain pattern of behavior comes to mind, but I dismiss it quickly. I want to learn how to grow in faith, but I’m not willing to let go of the habits holding me back.
Maybe you can relate. You know how it feels to ask God what he wants you to surrender into his hands, only to butt up against a bad habit you don’t really want to release just yet.
I sit with my desires as the coral-streaked sky fades to inky black night. Ultimately, when it’s time to return home and live out the faith I claim I desire, I feel stagnant and stuck.
How to Grow in Faith by Letting Go
Some of us ignore God’s quiet whispers for years and stay on our comfortable plateaus. Our lives feel under control. Meanwhile, we’re keeping ourselves from growing in faith.
We hold onto our bad habits, self-soothing mechanisms, and escapist behaviors. We want deeper faith, but we want it on our terms.
All the while, the idols in our hands are stopping us from experiencing the fulfillment we crave. We’re overlooking an important truth: The deeper you go with Jesus, the less you can carry with you.
The deeper you go with Jesus, the less you can carry with you. #DeepFaith #FollowingJesus #Surrender Click To TweetI eventually turned away from the habits I held onto in that hayfield, but there’s always more to release. There’s always a deeper level. And if we’re going to go deeper, we can’t carry these comforts with us:
1. Grow in faith by letting go of self-preservation.
Self-preservation leads us to protect ourselves from harm. We make sure we don’t get burned by others. We watch our backs and compete with others. Self-preservation leads us to defend ourselves at all costs.
I cling to self-preservation when I need to be right and when I put up facades to avoid looking foolish.
Self-preservation stops us from being vulnerable with others and even with God.
Meanwhile, Christ calls us to live broken and to offer the world our true selves. Self-preservation blocks the pathway to intimacy with Christ.
2. Release unhealthy self-soothing behaviors.
At the end of a long day, it’s tempting to turn to what will satisfy for a moment but leave a soul ultimately empty. Whether it’s turning to comfort eating, one extra glass of wine, excessive entertainment, unhealthy social media consumption, or some other unwholesome vice, most of us are tempted to escape into something other than the arms of the Lord.
These behaviors hinder us from going deeper with Jesus. When we turn away from him in our moments of need, we miss the opportunity to encounter him as our all-sufficient source of comfort. (Join me right here for tips on how to turn to God for comfort instead of turning to food.)
3. Let go of self-sufficiency.
Our culture teaches us to become strong, assertive, and self-sufficient.
We learn to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and hide our weaknesses.
Unfortunately, this self-sufficiency often hinders us from encountering the God whose power is made perfect in our weakness. It stops us from living lives of dependence upon our Father. It blocks us from encountering him experientially as we learn to lean into him to do what we cannot do alone.
Do you really want to learn how to grow in faith?
Ask God to help you embrace weakness so that his power might be made perfect in your life.
4. Surrender control.
When I share my issues with releasing control to God, the wise older women in my life often smile. They tell me the sooner I realize I don’t have control, the sooner I’ll find the freedom to walk in authentic communion with Christ.
The more we try to control our loved ones, the interruptions in our lives, and the thousands of minute details of our lives, the less receptive we are for the hand of God to reach down and orchestrate the details.
5. Move away from self-focus.
The ways we present ourselves matter. We are the representation of Christ. However, when the desire to honor Christ in the details of our lives becomes focused on outward appearances more than the heart, self-image often becomes an idol. We cannot go deeper with Jesus while glancing over our shoulders to see who is watching and what they are thinking.
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