What does it mean to Practice faith in God?
To practice your faith in God simply means that the belief that you have inside of you is consistently acted on as you go about your day or week.
It’s important to note that practicing our faith is not about going through religious rituals or traditions, but more about developing a relationship with our Father and learning to walk in love toward others.
In fact, this is exactly what the apostle Paul was saying in his letter to the Galatians.
In this letter, Paul was addressing a problem. The believers there began believing that they needed to follow the Old Covenant Law and be circumcised in order to be justified.
Because of this, Paul sent a whole letter to them explaining that if they attempt to be saved by the law and circumcision then they have been cut off from Christ and they have fallen from grace, meaning they are no longer saved (Galatians 5:4).
Paul then explains that to practice our faith is not to follow religious laws but to walk out love.
“For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:5-6)
Notice Paul said that the religious tradition of circumcision profits us nothing, but love is how we work out our faith.
In other words, faith doesn’t practice itself by following a set of commands or traditions. Faith only ever practices itself by love.
This is why the apostle Paul said to Timothy,
“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:5)
Why is it important to practice faith in God?
It’s important to practice our faith in God because although we are not saved by good works, we are saved for good works.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
This verse clearly says that we are not saved by our works, but that our salvation is a free gift of God that we accept by faith and repentance (as many other verses say: Luke 24:46-47, Acts 2:38).
Although this is true, that we do not receive salvation on the basis of works and anyone who says so will never receive the gift of eternal life, it is important to understand that the reason we are saved is for good works as the very next verse in Ephesians says.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
This verse reveals that we are His workmanship, meaning God is the One working in us to produce the good works in our lives. [Related article: How to Live Under the New Covenant (The Only Way)].
In other words, as we yield to Him through loving Him and loving others, God begins to manifest Himself in our daily lives to the people around us.
This is why it is important to practice our faith. We were created with a purpose and that purpose is to have a relationship with God and to express His nature to all of creation and Jesus Christ has redemmend us back to this purpose once we accept Him.
How to Practice Faith in God (On a Daily Basis)
As mentioned earlier, “faith works through love” (Galatians 5:6).
Jesus defined what this means more in-depth in Matthew 22:37-40 when He said,
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
So when it comes to practicing our faith, everything we do must fall into these two categories; loving God and loving people.
Loving God with everything we are
The first step to practicing our faith is to love God with all of our mind, with all of our heart, and with all of our soul and with all of our strength.
But how do we love God with all that we have? What does this look like practically?
There will be many who tell you to love God we need to develop a discipline of prayer, a discipline of reading the Word, a discipline of fasting, a discipline of meditating on the scriptures, a discipline of controlling what we think, etc.
Now I agree with all of those disciplines and I believe that they are essential to our walk with the Lord. In fact, I have written many articles on them.
But you know, if we would just love God with everything that we are we would automatically fulfill all of those disciplines that are required to have a healthy relationship with the Lord.
Think about it. If we truly loved God with all of our thinking, with all of our emotions, with all of our will, and with all of our strength, how could we possibly not pray? How could we possibly not read the Word of God? How could we possibly not obey Him when He speaks?
If we fully fall in love with God we wouldn’t want to watch and listen to a bunch of junk on TV and Social Media. Instead, we would want to spend time with God through praying and His Word. We would want to learn from Him and obey His voice. It would be difficult for us to not pray and read the Word for hours a day.
The problem is not that people struggle to fulfill a discipline, but that they are not fully in love with God.
This is why John the apostle said, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. (1 John 2:15-16)
Now if this is our problem, let’s stop allowing the things of this world to choke out our love for God and let’s not allow these things to take up so much of our time, and instead lets spend time with Jesus. [Related article: How to Walk/Live in the Spirit (Complete Guide)]
Loving our neighbor as ourselves
The next step to practicing our faith is loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Jesus and the apostle Paul said that doing this one thing would fulfill all of the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40 and Galatians 5:14).
Another place where Jesus said how to fulfill the law was when He mentioned the “golden rule”.
“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12).
Doing unto others as we want them to do unto us is the same thing, just different wording, as love your neighbor as you love yourself.
This one rule approves of every good thing that can be done to another human being and disaproves of all the bad things that can be done to another human being.
In other words, if we loved people we would give to them our time, resources, and effort when we see a need in their life. [Related article: How to Walk in Love According to the Bible]
In fact, if we fully focus on loving God and people not only would we live righteously to those around us but also our faith will grow exponentially.
Faith comes as we sow the Word of God into our lives (Romans 10:17) and it grows as we allow it to take root and grow without any other plant to choke it out (Matthew 13:18-23). This essentially is what will automatically happen if we love God with everything we have and love others as ourselves. [Related articles: How to Grow in Faith and What a Mustard Seed of Faith Means (And How to Have it)].
Our Lord Jesus truly knew what He was talking about when He said that these two commandments are the only requirements for the Christian life and that if we walk in these two things we will be walking in the fullness of God and we will be abiding in Him (Ephesians 3:17-19 and John 14:23-24).
I hope this article assisted you in your walk with the Lord. If you enjoyed this article, please consider giving a donation of any amount by clicking the button below. The support we receive from you enables The Biblical Foundation to keep all of the resources free and to reach more people with the teachings of the Word of God.
