How To Strengthen Your Faith Through Discipline
The act of strengthening your faith comes with having a relationship with your belief, deity, or whatever you follow as your structural understanding of faith. While there are many variations of spiritual exercises to help express yourself spiritually, there are a few that influence many people’s lives worldwide. So here are a few ways to strengthen your faith through discipline as you go along throughout your spiritual journey and grow in your faith.
Read Your Bible and Study Daily
The most effective way to strengthen your faith is through daily Bible readings and Bible study. By knowing the Bible, you become one with it and develop a relationship with it. That way, you can read it and apply your readings to all aspects of your life. This is what some people might refer to as the leap of faith. When you make it to this point, you live and breathe for those simple truths to make your life as spiritual as possible without conflict.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, there will always be times of conflict. So there is a careful balance that you have to tether when you understand biblical teachings. You are the inheritor of these truths and, if you choose to study them or believe them, you have to go along with how your path develops as you get involved. If you need biblical literature outside of your congregational setting, then you might look to your local Bible shop so that you can invest in a copy that suits your study and worship.
Prayer and Fellowship
When you are in the act of prayer, most people believe this to be a solitary event and an act of faith individual to the person. This doesn’t always have to be the case, though. As you encounter more people who believe as you do, you can strengthen your faith and spend more time around like-minded individuals.
Prayer can even go beyond the confines of what the traditionally minded believer may tell you. The act of prayer can also be a lifestyle that you lead by actively living out a spiritually sanctified way of life. There, you can look out for others and do good for your fellow man.
Fellowship doesn’t have to end with your congregation. Contrarily, it can carry on in all aspects of your life with whomever you encounter. The thing is that prayer and fellowship never end. You are always in company with others who believe as you do.
Stewardship for Your Fellow Man
As your faith grows, you too will grow. Then, you will have the innate inspiration to share what you know and love with your community through acts of stewardship. People will see you and your efforts and commend you on them initially. Then, as time goes on, they will become curious about what you do. Then, when you have the opening and opportunity, you can share the spiritual truths you’ve learned with them.
Small acts of kindness can lead to larger acts of charity. You may find yourself consumed in overtime, sheerly out of your inspiration to do the right thing because you believe in it. The desire to give back must come from within yourself because you feel it’s necessary. At some point in time, someone gave you so much that it allowed you to grow and mature into the person you are today. Therefore, it only makes sense that you would want the same for others. This is the greatest act of selflessness since you put yourself on the line.
Fasting and Silence
Then, there are times when you need to be alone to practice being at peace with everything you encounter. Spiritualism isn’t always an easy thing to digest, and, as such, you will need to take hiatus from everything on occasion to get your bearings straight. This may even mean that you fast from time to time to cleanse your body and mind from whatever has spiritually ailed you.
Even if the spiritual aspect doesn’t seem to be your ailment and it’s more health-related, it’s important to remember that the body is sanctified. In fact, many spiritual contexts refer to the body as the temple. When you take care of your body, you then work toward nurturing your spiritual nature. Just like working out, fasting helps cleanse the body and mind of impurity, allowing them to reset. This can keep us from things we may struggle with, like food addictions.
But we also must help our bodies cleanse themselves from all kinds of toxins and free radicals that harm the body and mind. Many people don’t think about the mind and body as unified entities. However, they are connected, so we must account for them together, not separately.
Silence is something that many deeply overlook, but how many times in a day or a week have you ever needed a break from everything? For many, it happens frequently, and it’s perfectly normal to feel a sense of overwhelming pressure lurking. When you take a deep breath and give yourself some time and space, you will notice that you’re more focused. Then, you can go back to your daily life better prepared to carry on the day.
Bible study can sometimes be trivial as it tests your innermost core beliefs and foundational understanding. This can often have you questioning your ethics and morals so intensely that you come to a level of honesty with yourself that you cannot shake. But it takes time and effort to build yourself up to that level of spiritual faith, and you must diligently pray and study. Then, when you have time, try to be a good steward; help others understand their faith as well.
As you’re in the act of learning how to strengthen your faith through discipline, you will need to remain dedicated to making it work. This takes real willpower that you will discover is the hardest thing to acquire and will test you daily. So be prepared; it’s no easy feat.
