It seems every day we are flooded with things of the world – negative thoughts, emotions, vulgar music, TV shows, Facebook posts, etc… it seems the list never ends!
So how do we, as Christians, keep our faith strong while living in a secular world? Check out these 5 ways you can keep your faith in a secular world!
How To Keep Your Faith In A Secular World
Keeping our faith as Christians in a secular world, that sometimes even goes out of their way to disprove God, can be hard!
But we want to make sure we stay strong in our faith, and not adjust our standards to what the world says is right and true, because we know the truth.
That Jesus is Lord and salvation is only found in Him!
Even as things are happening like wildfire around us, our need for Him hasn’t changed. Sin has always been around, you can read in the Old Testament and see the types of things they were doing.
But they needed Him just the same as we do today!
It’s still challenging though living in a world where God is being pushed to the side or even the opposite, to where if you believe in Him you are immediately ostracized.
But I want to offer you HOPE today, because we don’t receive our crown of glory here. N0, we receive that when Jesus comes back to collect His saints (1 Peter 5:4) and having been sanctified continually, and preserving through trials, we can approach Him with confidence in Heaven!
So, without further ado, are 5 important ways you can make sure you keep your faith in a secular world…
1. Spend time with God daily
First and foremost, we honestly have NO chance of staying strong in our faith when we aren’t rooted firmly in God. We have to make sure we are spending daily time with Him!
How else will we know what to do when trials come our way, or certain situations pop up? We have to know what He says in His Word and understand more and more of His great love and purpose for us.
So how do we spend time with Him each day? Here are a few ways we can do that…
Setting aside time each day
WE make appointments for everything right? The doctors office, dentist, ball games, and tons more. Those things are important to us, right?
So how much MORE important is it to set up a daily appointment with the King of the universe??
Once you have that time set each day, here are 2 things you can do to fill it with…
Reading the Bible
God gave us His Word to communicate with us, how amazing is that?! So reading it each day would be a good start. Here are some great Bible reading plans you can download for free to get your whole family involved!
Spend time in prayer
Prayer is simply having a conversation with God. Jesus tells us how to pray in Matthew 6:9-14.
So first acknowledging who God is, our Father, praising and thanking Him. Then He says we can bring our requests to Him, and pray against the schemes from the enemy.
It’s also important to make sure we listen as well, not just making it a one-sided conversation from ourselves! If you want to learn more about prayer, check out this article, How to Instantly Transform Your Prayer Life.
These are just a few ways we can make sure we are spending daily time with God, so we can stand firm in our faith in a secular world.
2. Make sure you are self-evaluating
Doing periodic self-evaluations is a great way to ensure you are staying connected to the vine, and producing good fruit. John 15:1-8
This can actually tie into your daily quiet time with God, every once in a while. Ask God to reveal to you things that may be hindering you from His purposes, and confess those things to Him in order that you can ask forgiveness and move forward.
Sometimes, we know what things we may be doing that are wrong so we can bring those to Him and repent from them. But it’s also good to ASK God to reveal those things to you, things you may not even know have been an issue!
3. Surround yourself with other believers
We were never meant to go this life alone – God wants us to surround ourselves with other believers so we can be encouraged, uplifted, and have accountability.
Yes, we are called to go out and share our faith with unbelievers and be around those we can share the Gospel with just like Jesus did. But Jesus also had His close group of followers, the disciples!
These are the people who you can call and pray for/with, and just do life together. They are the ones you can ask for good, godly advice, and not worldly advice when you face adversities.
Here are some ways you can surround yourself with other believers…
- Get involved in church – we are all part of God’s global body, but being a part of the local body is so important! You can get to know other believers, and serve your community as well.
- Bible Study – most churches offer Bible studies, and it’s a great way to dig deeper into your relationships and build that community!
- Find a mentor – those who are further along in the faith than us can definitely be such a blessing to us, helping us and sharing their life experiences with us
4. Guard your heart and minds
Now that we have talked about what we should fill our minds with – God’s Word – we can’t just stop there!
We want to make sure that we are filling our minds with things that will draw us closer to God, and not letting all that “junk” in. Being mindful of TV shows we watch, books we read, and the music we listen to is so important.
It may not seem like it but over time those things can cause us to have ungodly thoughts and attitudes, and before we know it, we are negatively responding and reacting to those around us.
This is especially important if you have kids because leading by example is number one!!
5. Don’t be afraid to be different
One of the main things I think Christians may struggle with when it comes to keeping the faith in this secular world is the fear of being “weird” or “different.”
In reality, you should react differently to things, and it shouldn’t make sense to the world.
When something bad happens to us, we can respond with joy and peace because we know trials produce godliness in us. When good things happen, we can thank God for them and not fill up with pride that we did it ourselves.
It’s also huge for when we witness to people – when they see our responses and reactions to things, it makes them say, “Why are you okay with this?” or “Why are you responding that way?” It’s a great opportunity to share the Gospel with people!
I hope these 5 ways encourage you to keep fighting the good fight, (1 Timothy 6:12) and keep your faith even when we are living in this secular world! Lean into Him and trust Him daily, and He will strengthen and guide you.
