3 Ways to Grow in Your Faith This Summer

Over the last several weeks, nature seems to be waking from its winter slumber. The trees have clothed themselves with leaves and flowers push themselves from the ground into bloom. The days stretch longer, and the temperature grows warmer and warmer. Soon, our calendars will be filled with family events, vacations, yard work, backyard BBQs, and late-night campfires. Summer can be a wonderful time to reconnect with family and friends and recharge.

However, it is also a great season to focus on growing our relationship with God. Sometimes we say phrases like “I want to grow in my faith,” but we don’t know exactly what that looks like to grow in our spiritual walk practically.

Here are three ways to focus on growing your faith this summer.

1)    Reading Scripture and Prayer

This may seem obvious at first. However, in my experience with people, this step is often overlooked and skipped. Relational intimacy takes time and cultivation. If I don’t spend time with my wife, our relationship will suffer, and we will not be on the same page and out of sync. The same is true in our relationship with God; walking with God takes time and cultivation.

God has given us His Word and prayer as ways to draw near to him. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path.”

It’s through God’s Word we learn who Christ calls us to be, what His promises are, and what is right and wrong. Spending time with God in His Word is necessary for a fruitful walk with Him.

In addition, God has given us prayer as a conduit to have fellowship with God. In prayer, we bring our burdens (Psalm 55:22), our anxieties (1 Peter 5:7), our worship (Psalm 100), our requests (Psalm 18:2), and confess our sins (1 John 1:9). Prayer is a direct line to speak with God and is necessary to grow in our faith.

I remember in the months after I gave my life to Christ, feeling convicted that if I wanted to grow in my faith, I needed to spend time in God’s Word. I prayed and asked God to bring someone into my life to hold me accountable for spending time in Scripture daily. That Sunday, when I went to youth group, my youth leader pulled me aside and said he had a challenge for me. He said that he wanted to challenge me to read the Scriptures every day and then we could talk about it at the end of the week. I was blown away. That was the first time I saw answered prayer in my life.

So, I decided that I would start the next day. I woke up an extra half an hour before school started, went into the spare bedroom in our house, laid out my copy of the Bible on the bed, and began to read and then spend some time in prayer. I don’t remember what book of the Bible I started with, but that time became a solace for me. I didn’t know Greek. I didn’t have any special training in exegesis. I didn’t understand Ancient Near Eastern culture. I didn’t have any of that stuff taught in Bible School. As helpful as those things are, I didn’t learn any of those things until much later.  

I was just a twelve-year-old kid desperate to know God. And that’s what God took. That 20 to 30-minute time in the morning with God quickly evolved into an hour or hour and a half each day. I couldn’t get enough. It transformed my life.

I don’t share that story to say that you must copy what I did. Maybe your first instinct is “Davis, I don’t have an extra hour in my day!”

As a pastor, I often get a question: “How do I structure a time with God?” That is a great question, one that I believe we often over-complicate. With people who are just starting in their walk with God, I recommend what some have labeled “The 5-5-5 method.”

-       5 minutes of reading

-       5 minutes of reflection

-       5 minutes of prayer.

5 minutes of reading should get you through about one chapter of Scripture, which is great to start with. Then take 5 minutes to think about what you have read. This can take the form of journaling what stood out to you, maybe further questions you have about the text that you can look up or ask your pastor about later. Then take 5 minutes to pray about how you can apply what you read or pray about stuff going on in your life.

I believe if you commit to taking 15 minutes of your day to spend time with God, it will naturally expand to longer amounts of time as your relationship with Him grows. I promise you, it will change your life.

2)    Community with Believers

The Book of Hebrews says, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:24-25)

This passage highlights the importance of community in the Christian life. We are at our strongest when we stand together and help one another in our walk with Christ. I am one of the leaders of a multi-church young adult ministry. One of the things I have noticed is how important community and vulnerability are in the Christian life.  In a community, we can share the difficult things that are going on in our lives; we can ask for help for the things that may be too difficult to bear on our own. We are much stronger together than we are by ourselves.

There is a reason that Christ established the church. Being a Christian was never meant to be a solo journey. Being a Christian is made to be done cooperatively with other people walking in the same direction.

You can accomplish this by getting connected with a local church body, engaging with the Sunday morning worship experience, and seeing what Bible studies or small groups are offered by the church. Small groups and Bible studies can be a great way to plug in deeper at a church and build connections with a smaller group of people. It is in these types of groups that you can build strong relationships with people who will be there in the hard seasons of life.

3)    Embracing Your Trials

This one may come as a surprise. However, our lives are often FILLED with different types of trials. We don’t like to think about embracing the heartbreaks and pain that often color our lives. In fact, when the tension hits, we look for the quickest exit door to escape.

The Scriptures paint a different perspective for us to take with our trials. The Book of James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4)

Scripture says our trials are the vehicles God uses to mold and shape our faith. This passage goes so far as to say to “consider it joy” when we encounter trials. This doesn’t mean that we are to have joy because our lives are hard or things are falling apart, but it is saying we can have joy because God is able to use those difficult and painful circumstances and make something beautiful out of them. Christ is redeeming our broken situations to make us more like Him. We are able to embrace our trials because the Maker of the world has embraced us and will carry us through.

Scripture shows that our trials are an essential part of our spiritual growth. They are not optional. When I look at the photo album of my life, it’s rarely in the really comfortable or easy parts that I grow the most. It is usually in those rough, impossible, raw seasons of my life where it seems God is up to the most good. In those times, I see Him growing and stretching me, even if I don’t understand “how” or “why” in the moment.

In the busyness this summer, do not miss out on opportunities to grow in your faith and walk with Christ. Take time in God’s Word and prayer, engage in community with your local church, and embrace the trials that God allows to come across your path.