How To Bring Revival to Your Faith
Let’s face it – the pandemic was like a wet blanket thrown on the sparks of our lives. Even if we managed to avoid getting sick, or had a mild case when we did catch COVID – the emotional/psychological/spiritual toll has been significant. Whether it was because of the endless shut downs or pandemic related restrictions – a lot of us fell out of some very good habits. Maybe we stopped working out.
Maybe we stopped hanging out with certain friends who used to be such an important part of our lives.
Maybe we haven’t seen family as much as we used to.
Maybe we’re out of practice for going to church on Sundays.
It’s not like we hate any of those things – we just haven’t done them regularly in SO LONG. It can be hard to get back into a normal routine when coming out of something as significant as pandemic life. We HAD to get back to work, because we needed the paycheck,
and maybe we finally got back into a work out schedule
(because those pandemic pounds were making it difficult to fit into our jeans)
but what about God?
Sometimes, because God is always there for us, we forget to make him a priority and we sort of take him for granted. We tell ourselves, “oh yeah, I guess I’ll get back to all that God stuff eventually.” Friends, this is a terrible idea. Leaving God on the back burner and assuming we’ll get around to our faith eventually is a recipe for disaster. We need to make our faith walk a PRIORITY in our lives, or the negative affects on each of us will be a lot stronger than we realize.
Take a peek at what we’ve seen these past few years:
Anxiety rates in 2021 are at 35.9% (up from 6.1% pre-pandemic)[1]
Drug overdose and suicide are the leading causes of death in people ages 15-44.
In 2021 37% of high school students reported poor mental health[2]
44% reported that they felt persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year.
(There’s a LOT more data out there, but I think we get the idea)
Meanwhile, regular involvement in a faith community results in:
-Lower[3] levels of worrying were associated with greater private religious activities, religious attendance, spiritual growth and with an increase in religious activities;
-lower levels of fear were associated with greater private religious activities and spiritual growth
-and, lower levels of sadness were associated with spiritual growth.
Our culture is stressed, afraid, hopeless and even suicidal. But studies have shown again and again that religious involvement lowers fear, lowers worrying, and even lowers sadness.
It’s a fairly simple picture. Your walk with God is TOO important and the world is TOO broken and crazy right now to have a “back burner” mentality. A strong relationship with God is not only necessary SPIRITUALLY, but we have seen over and over that it is also ESSENTIAL on an emotional, psychological and even physical level too! These are not interesting topics for discussion for when you’re sitting around with nothing better to do – your faith walk is VITAL for you to be able to flourish and thrive as a human being! There is nothing that will fulfill you, and give your life meaning and purpose like building an intentional connection with the God who created you. This post is the first of three where I’d like to give you some practical steps on how to bring REVIVAL to your faith walk. At our church we use a three step process to help people grow closer to God. You can see more about that HERE:
It’s not rocket science – but sometimes it can be SO helpful to have these basic reminders! The first step to discovering REVIVAL is through WORSHIP. Very simply, you need to reclaim Sunday Morning. You can take a break any day of the week, but there is something valuable in carving out time to worship God. Set a goal for your life: If you are physically capable and within driving distance of your church – get to church on Sunday. Even if you’re far away or on vacation – most churches have livestream capabilities and you should be able to tune in and spend some time worshipping. I’m not trying to make you feel bad if you have to cover a shift at work, or if you’re out of town or whatever. It’s not about legalism and guilt. It’s not about attendance or getting more butts in the pews. I don’t care about that stuff. The truth is that showing up to a church service every week WILL create a revival in your life. I don’t want you to feel bad, I want you to feel GOOD. The goal of a Sunday morning service is to take a break from the world to focus and worship God. This is the first step towards having a healthy spiritual life, and it will make your life better in more way than one. Step one: get your butt to church every single Sunday.
Simple, right?
