What if you could have the faith of your dreams? What if your faith could be everything you ever imagined, longed for, or wished for in your heart?
Do this. Take a moment, close your eyes, and envision what your life would be like if you were the Christian, you knew God wanted you to be.
Seriously. If you haven’t done it yet, stop reading. Close your eyes and imagine who you would be if you lived like Christ wanted you to live.
- What would your day look like?
- What about your relationship?
- Parenting?
- Your spiritual disciplines?
- Devotions?
- Prayer?
- Bible Study?
- How would you use your finances, time, and energy?
- How involved would you be in your church?
- How about in the community with those in need?
- What would your life be like if you had the faith you desire?
This sort of reflection is more than just an exercise. It is a starting point.
If you don’t know what you want in your faith, then it’s hard to have it. If you know what you want, you have something to aim towards.
In a previous article, I ask you what is the current state of your faith? You did a very similar exercise as mentioned above. Then I ask you what are the risks if you do nothing to change?
If you missed that article, click here to read the article.
The first step in bringing change is to know what you want to change. You discern what you want to change by dreaming about the life of faith that you want. The life you want is your faith-vision.
Remember the Biblical principle: Without a vision, the people perish.
Without a vision for faith, people just wander through life, and faith, without purpose. There is no progress in faith. We don’t grow. We go through the motions, but very little ever happens. Then one day we look back and wonder why we haven’t become better Christians. We look at the current state of our faith and it’s no different from ten years ago. Rather than running the race of faith, we merely run in place. We are no closer to the finish line than when we began.
Let’s change that. Let’s at least run in the right direction. To do that, we need to know where the finish line is.
Here is what I want you to do. Think back upon the reflection at the top of this article about what would your life look like if you lived the faith that God wants for you. This time, write out your answer. Describe what your life would look like if you lived your life as God wants you to live it. Describe every area of your life affected. I’ve given suggestions above.
After you have completed the description, title it “My Faith-Vision”. If it is not in the same journal as your responses to the current state of your faith, keep them with each other.
This week, read both entries. Read your description of “What is and the risks of what is” followed by “My Faith-Vision”. As you read, ask yourself which do you want? Do you want your dream faith, or do you want to maintain the status quo?
I’d encourage you to pray about it as well. After the daily review, spend time with God discussing the current state and what He wants for you.
In the next article, we’ll start figuring out how to get to the finish line. We know what God wants, now we must figure out how to get there.