3 Ways to Activate Your Faith in God

Do you ever wonder if there’s more to following Jesus than just going to church on Sunday or being a nice person? While those things are important, God has so much more for you.

I thought I peaked with my faith by serving at church each weekend and on Wednesdays. I didn’t use bad words and had consistent spiritual habits. But I still felt like something was missing. 

I was doing all the right things, but I wasn’t experiencing a fulfilling, joyful life. And I began to wonder, Is my faith missing something?

Does that question sound familiar? Maybe you’ve been a Christian for a while—going to church, reading the Bible, and spending time in prayer—but you’re still wondering if there’s something more to your faith. 

Here’s the good news: God does have more for you. My hope is to give you practical next steps to grow in your faith and find true fulfilment in Jesus. 

God Meets You Where You Are

There’s no such thing as a perfect Christian, because—outside of Jesus—everyone misses God’s standard. So our goal isn’t to figure out how to get everything right. Instead, we want to find out how to take steps toward an activated faith—the kind of faith that changes how we think, act, and love. 

But we don’t have to figure it all out on our own. God meets each of us where we are and helps us move toward an activated faith. We see this pattern in the lives of Jesus’ first followers.

For example, Peter was a regular guy with an ordinary job. He had doubts, insecurities, and some unhealthy beliefs about God. But Jesus still chose him as a follower, inviting him to step out of his ordinary life and into a fresh, activated faith.

Read more of Peter’s story.

Knowing Jesus vs. Doing Tasks

So what does it look like to know God and have a relationship with Him? It can include spiritual habits like spending time talking with Him in prayer, reading His words in the Bible, and listening to worship music that declares His character. 

But it's important to understand that faith is more than doing a bunch of spiritual tasks. Following Jesus isn’t just knowing about Him—it’s knowing Him. It's knowing and responding to the love He has already shown us. And our spiritual habits help us get there.

For instance, when we read the gospels, we see Jesus’ heart as He serves those whom society has neglected. His dedication to people in need inclines our hearts toward Him and encourages us to show the people around us this same kind of care. This is a step toward activated faith.

Jesus met a lot of people who had great spiritual habits, but lacked a life-giving faith in God. Here’s what He said to a group of spiritual leaders:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” Matthew 23:25-26 NIV

Here’s the point: Jesus doesn’t want people to just look good on the outside; He wants to make us new from the inside. This changes how we think, speak, and act. But we can’t fix the inside on our own. We need Jesus’ help.

3 Ways to Activate Your Faith

As we go over different methods of activating your faith, remember that the goal isn’t to give you a list of spiritual activities to master. The point is to know Jesus more and join Him in the work He’s doing in the world today.

1. Pursue Spiritual Disciplines

Have you seen someone run a marathon without any training? Probably not! People spend months, if not years, to get to that point. 

In Paul’s first letter to the believers in Corinth, he encourages them to pursue Christ with this: 

Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 NLT

Our faith is the same way; it takes time and a training plan. We don’t grow close to God by accident, but by making a plan to pursue spiritual practices that help us to know Him more. 

For you, that might look like:

• Waking up earlier to spend a few minutes in prayer 
• Starting a Bible Plan on the YouVersion Bible App before bed
• Giving up take-out meals a few times a month so you can tithe 
• Playing worship music on the way to the office

Try this: Pick just one spiritual discipline, make a plan, and ask God to use it to transform your heart and help you know Him more.

Spiritual practices are the foundation of an activated faith, but God didn’t create us to just check spiritual boxes. So how do we take what we learn and put it to work in our lives? By spending time with other followers of Jesus.

2. Surround Yourself With Community

The greatest athletes train with the support of a coach, family, and friends—a team that encourages them, especially when the grind gets difficult. How much deeper might you go if you had a team of people to encourage you during hard times?

The Book of James was written to believers facing setback after setback, and it starts with this:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4 NIV

In other words, when we stand firm with Christ through trials, the experience actually matures our faith. But how do we stand firm?

We surround ourselves with a godly community.

From the very beginning of time, God intended for us to be social beings when He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). 

Community is the group of people in your life who show up and celebrate with you, mourn with you, and laugh with you. It’s the place where you can wrestle with questions and have people encourage you to pursue Jesus, especially when times get tough. 

Having a Christian community can take several different forms. Attending church regularly is a great first step, but it doesn’t end there. For you, it could mean: 

• Introducing yourself to someone and making it a priority to meet each week
• Connecting with others at church by serving together
• Finding a small group to meet with each week

What next step do you need to take to immerse yourself more in Christ-centered community? Whatever it is, remember that God didn’t design you to live life alone; He designed you to be in community.

3. Live with Humility

Jesus is the God of the universe, but He didn’t come to earth as a conquering king. Instead, He came as a humble servant, and He invites us to live as He did.

Society tells us to climb the ladder of success, prioritize our own happiness, and surround ourselves with people who agree with us. Jesus calls us to do the opposite: to serve others, deny ourselves, expand our relationships, and love people who are different from us.

Earlier in this article, we talked about how the religious leaders who opposed Jesus looked spiritual on the outside but were rotten on the inside. They pursued spiritual habits and spent time in community, but they were self-focused. 

These religious leaders would quote Bible verses to prove how much they knew, performatively pray with poetic, complex language, give offerings in public to prove to others how holy they were, and attend religious gatherings out of social duty. 

But Jesus showed humble, genuine love, the kind that might not get noticed or praised. He spent time with people who had nothing to offer, He prayed in secret, and He affirmed the worth of people rejected by society.

This path isn’t easy, and life can get harder when we stop living for ourselves. But Jesus isn’t inviting us into a comfortable life—He’s inviting us into a fulfilling one.