3 Ways To Refresh Your Faith

Do you feel like your faith has become stagnant? Or that your relationship with God seems to be at a standstill? Trust me, you are not alone. Your faith walk is just that, a walk, a journey. A lifelong journey of you growing, making strides, and taking leaps. Although your faith in God may remain constant, that does not mean it stays the same.

You are to grow in your faith and relationship with God. Yet even though we all seek to always have our faith growing and allowing it to change us, that is not always the case. There are times in our lives when it feels like we are not growing. We are at a standstill in our faith and our relationship with God.

I can remember that last time I can to a stagnant place in my faith. And yes, I said that last time because if I am honest it has happened more than once. Life is filled with so many ups and downs, and your faith walk is no exception. For me, I just completed my yearlong Bible study group, school was wrapping up for my girls, and I was in the midst of the website rebrand.

Life was good and busy. However, every morning during my quiet time, I was starting to feel more like a have to and less like a ‘want to’. I was just merely checking it off of my to-do list and going through the motions. This was a sign for me that something was off.

When you get to those times or seasons in your faith, it is time to refresh your faith.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Psalms 51:10 (NLT)

Time to approach your faith and relationship with God in a new and fresh way with a new perspective. To help us all when we get to those times, here are three ways for you to refresh your faith.

1) Change Up Your Routine

If you are anything like me, you love a routine and schedule. Yet, with our faith, if things are feeling a little stagnant, then it may be time to change things up. Whether that is when and if you have quiet time with God. Or the type of devotionals you usually gravitate to. Or even the faith or small groups you may be a part of.

Making changes in any of these areas can give you the refresh in your faith that you are seeking. Changing up the type of devotionals I do has been a go-to for me. This was actually a recommendation I got from my husband, Eric.

Eric loves the short devotionals that are offered on the YouVersion Bible app. I used to love using the Bible in the app as well, but I had not really tried any of the devotionals. Until one day he suggested that we do a devotional together and I have been hooked ever since.

The length of the devotionals ranges from 3 days to 365 days. The shorter 3 – 7 day devotionals are often snippets of longer devotionals. This is a great way to see if this devotional is the right fit for you before making a purchase. This is how I have found some of my favorite devotional books. Changing up your devotional may seem minor, but it may give you the refresh you are looking for in your faith.

2) Start Reading A New Translation Of The Bible

We all have our favorite or go-to translation of the Bible that we read and look to when we are looking for a particular verse. For me, that is NIV (New International Version) and NASB (New American Standard Bible). Although God’s Word is unchanging, how it speaks to us does change.

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power
[making it active, operative, energizing, and effective];
Hebrews 4:12a (AMPC)

This change in how it speaks to us can often happen when we read a different translation of the Bible that we may not have read before. Helping to both refresh you faith and give you new insight into God’s Word.

This past Christmas I bought Eric a Tony Evans Study Bible for Christmas. It has become not only his favorite Bible, but I have fallen in love with it too. Before getting this Bible, I had never read the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) translation. Now it is one of my favorite Bible translations to go to when I want a fresh look at a verse or I want to dig a little deeper. This Tony Evans Study Bible in particular has also become a great gift that we have now given to others.

Refreshing our faith often requires us to have a fresh look at God’s Word and opening up different translations of that Bible can be a great way to do that.

3) Limit Your Social Media, Television and/or Radio For At Least 1 Week

Now hear me out. You probably got to this post through social media. Yes, social media, the internet, television, and radio are all such great and powerful tools. Yet, they can also often be overwhelming and overpowering without the right filters, which can draw us away from God.

So if you are feeling your faith or your relationship with God may be at a standstill, maybe taking a break from social media, television or radio may be just what you need. By taking a break from these things it allows you to decrease the number and the volume of voices speaking to you. While giving you more space and room to allow God to speak to you.

Sometimes that best way to get the refreshment you need, not just in your faith, but in your life, is by taking time away from things that may be distracting you.

In the busyness of life, it is so easy to put your faith on autopilot. So if your faith is in need of a refresh, remember to try one of all three of these things:

• Change up your routine
• Read a new translation of the Bible
• Take a social media, television, and/or radio break

Nurturing and growing in your faith is so important. So when you get to those times when you feel like you are not doing either, it is important to know somethings you can do to not stay stuck.

I’d love to know what you do when you feel your faith or that your relationship
with God feels stagnant in the comments!