For the most part, those of us who claim to be spiritual all believe that we have strong faith. That is, until something happens in our lives that actually tests our faith. Then, the truth comes out. Those who truly believe see positive results, while everyone else falls into a dark hole of doubt and frustration…and if you are reading this, you might fall in the latter category.

Whenever you find yourself in a situation that shows you that your faith isn’t where you thought it was, you might feel terrible and even start to question spirituality in general. Do any of the following questions sound familiar to you? What the heck are the answers? Why can’t I get it right? How did other people figure it out? Why is this stuff so hard to understand? Can’t it just be laid out plainly? How do I know if I really have faith? I don’t know about you, but I know I’ve asked all of these questions before.

Faith is something that takes a lot of practice to strengthen and to grow. While it is normal to feel bad when things don’t turn out the way you wanted, you shouldn’t stay in that space and beat yourself up about it. I’ve come up with the following things to help you to stay encouraged and to get back on the track of your faith walk.

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What to Do When You Fail at Faith

1

Remember that there are levels to this. The bible even states that certain types of works through faith only come by fasting and prayer (Matthew 17:21). There are some things that we can speak and see come to fruition. There are other things that we have to pray on several times. And then there are things that we need to fast and pray about. If you don’t see what you’ve applied your faith to, try again, and keep trying until you do see it.

2

Ask yourself if you’ve been specific enough in your request. My husband and I play a game, where we always say that there’s a check in the mail, whenever we go to collect it from the mailbox. We finally realized that there was always a check in the mail, but it wasn’t what we were looking for. There would be refill checks for our checkbooks, check order forms, advertisements that look like checks, but no checks addressed to us that we could cash. We laughed about it, and decided to be more specific. Just when we did that, we received a check in the mail from our bank, saying that we had overpaid in fees. Be very specific about exactly what you want.

3

Remember that faith always should be applied with works attached (James 2:20). Some people pray for things, but never make any effort to obtain them. When you apply your faith to something, you absolutely must jump into action. You can’t ask God to give you a college degree, and then sit at home in front of the TV, expecting to receive one. Right? Decide on what you want, apply your faith to obtaining it, and then get moving toward whatever it is.

4

Never give up on expecting to get the results that you want. Sometimes, you will learn things along the way that let you know that what you want is a little further off than what you were hoping for, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not coming. Learn and make adjustments so that you can get to what you want. If you want to lose weight, and you continue to educate yourself and make healthy choices, you definitely will lose weight. It may also help to enlist the help of someone else to believe with you (Matthew 18:20).

If these four things seem too simple to you, it may be that you have been overthinking things. Nowadays, we want what we want, and we want it immediately. Some things come to us immediately, but other things (a lot of things) come on a different schedule than our own. Just stick with it. Your faith is fine right where it is. You can always strengthen and grow it. Take it one day at a time, and you’ll see just how far you’ve come on your faith walk.

Also Read: The Only Time It’s Okay to Look Back at Your Past

What have you applied your faith to lately? Has it come to fruition yet?