“How can I grow in faith?”
This is one of the key questions that pastors often help people to answer.
How to grow deeper in relationship with God – how to have a faith that transforms our lives and makes a difference in the world.
Sometimes the answers are big: connecting with a church, developing a routine of worship attendance, finding a spiritual mentor to guide us.
Sometimes the answers are external: read this book, or use that journal, or participate in this program.
My experience has been that people feel overwhelmed by it all. The distance between where they are (what feels like not much faith) and where they want to be (life-changing faith) feels like it is insurmountable. The commitment, the time, the effort to get from point A to point B just seems like it can’t be reached.
But what if I could suggest an easy, attainable way to grow your faith – no matter where you are starting from?
Being Alarmed
The answer is in most of our purses and pockets – that handy connection to the world that most of us carry with us where ever we go.
You can use your phone to grow in faith, without any special apps, tools, or difficult processes.
Take out your phone, and set an alarm – sometime in the middle of the day. Set it to go off every day. And when that alarm goes off – whatever else you are doing – stop and pray.
Set another alarm – sometime toward the end of the day. Again, make sure it goes of every day. And then that alarm goes off, stop and think about what gave you joy – what you are grateful for that day.
It is as simple as that. Take time each and every day to pause and pray, and another moment each day to pause and give thanks.
A couple important notes:
- Don’t give up if you have to skip a day! Just start again tomorrow.
- Not sure what to pray? Use the Lord’s Prayer, or borrow a prayer book from a church
- Feel weird about it? Ask a friend, coworker, or family member to set an alarm for the same time, and you will always know that you aren’t alone
Is It Really That Easy?
The short answer? Yes!
Taking time each day to pray and to give thanks is a life-changing practice, and something as simple as an alarm to remind us to do those things can be the perfect encouragement to start this new habit.
So go ahead. Pull out your phone and set an alarm.
Take a step toward a deeper faith.
