If you’re a Christian, perhaps you might have thought, “I wish I were stronger in my faith.” Often, that happens upon noticing that a fellow Christian was able to deal with a crisis in life with an impressive amount of grace and seemed to emerge from the event unscathed. However, pondering ways to enjoy a deeper, richer faith can often be overwhelming, causing you to get discouraged before ever attempting the methods you find.
Fortunately, there are some highly applicable things you can do to live out your Christian faith in new ways. You can tackle many of them naturally during everyday life.
Reshape Your Perspectives About Adverse Events
The Bible is full of described accounts that detail how God delivered people from perceivably impossible events, even when they were in the belly of a whale, a lion’s den, or in an ark during a massive flood. Also, in the New Testament, you’ll find instances where Jesus Christ performed miracles that helped blind people see, healed lepers, and fed hungry people with only a small amount of food that shouldn’t have been enough to satisfy all of their appetites.
After refreshing your memory about those time-tested stories and looking up a few Bible verses to rely on when you’re feeling swamped by life’s stresses, it’ll be much easier to have a fresher viewpoint about adversity. Instead of immediately starting to panic when things go wrong or appear as they might, you could recall all the occasions recorded in the Bible when people triumphed over very hard circumstances that many people considered impossible.
Changing your perspective in that way takes time and effort because it goes against human nature. However, by doing so, you could find you’re able to enjoy an amazing inner peace despite going through troubling times.
Help Marginalized Groups on a Voluntary Basis
One of the most well-known foundational points of the New Testament is how we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Many Christians take that command very seriously and believe it means welcoming refugees with open arms. Regardless of your stance on that hot-button topic, there is an often-cited verse in Matthew that mentions how when we help strangers, we are really assisting Jesus in disguise.
Think about how Jesus made waves throughout society simply for interacting with people who were considered “sinners.” Individuals within that group included prostitutes and people with leprosy. And, it’s important to note that when Jesus spent time with societal outcasts, he did so in a very open way that those in the upper levels of society couldn’t help but notice.
Jesus wasn’t going out of his way to be in the presence of marginalized groups because he wanted praise from others, but because he recognized those people were worthy of love too, despite being largely cast out. Keep those things in mind and think about volunteering in your community.
You might focus on the homeless population, people who are mentally ill, or illiterate adults. Those sectors of society are full of worthy individuals who often get shunned by peers. You can display your Christian faith genuinely by spending time with them.
Lead a Small-Group Bible Study
Depending on how faith relates to your upbringing, you might have been attending small-group Bible study sessions for the past several years. In that case, consider that you’re probably well equipped to shift your role from attendee to leader.
If the mere thought of that possibility makes you break into a cold sweat, don’t let your worries persuade you to give up on the idea. These study groups are often highly collaborative, so if someone brings up a question you can’t answer, another person might pitch in and give feedback. Also, consider that the internet is full of content-rich resources you can easily adapt into material for a Bible study.
For example, The Way International is a non-denominational Christian organization that aims to spread God’s teachings accurately around the world. The group published a SlideShare presentation about how to live a peaceful life as a Christian. It features relatable text, plus themed Bible verses that could enrich any meeting among believers.
Explore Different Christian Perspectives
Although most Christians read the Bible, it often seems there are dozens of ways to interpret certain scriptures. One excellent way to expand and deepen your faith is to become acquainted with the teachings of fellow Christians who have different beliefs than the ones you’ve been taught. Taking this approach does not mean you’re losing your faith. It just shows you’re strong enough in the basic concepts of your belief system to be ready and willing to see what other Christians think.
As you can see, these are all methods of improving your faith that you could start relatively soon. Before choosing any of them, it’s a good idea to spend time in prayer and consider how God might be leading you.
