Blake Long

“When faith sleeps, my heart becomes an unclean thing, the fount of every loathsome desire, the cage of unclean lusts all fluttering to escape, the noxious tree of deadly fruit, the open wayside of earthly tares.” (Valley of Vision)

My faith is not as strong as I’d like it to be. On many days, I venture home and think to myself, “Did I do anything in faith today? Were my eyes fixed on Heaven? How well did I think on heavenly things?” It feels like my faith is sleeping on too many occasions. It’s there, it’s alive; but it’s taking a rest.

There are no super Christians, so I would imagine all believers have felt this way from time to time. When our faith sleeps, we lose sight of the glory of God, the beauty of Jesus, the majesty of heaven.

When my faith sleeps, I grow impatient. My mind isn’t in the place it should be and I tend to become anxious about everyday life.

When my faith sleeps, it’s easy to “forget” God and go about my day functionally independent from His sovereign rule and reign.

When my faith sleeps is when sin gets a firm grip on my heart because I’m not focused on Jesus.

When my faith sleeps, I naturally don’t take time to pray, read my Bible, or discuss anything spiritual with those around me, specifically my wife. In a very real sense, when I allow my faith to sleep, my wife’s spiritual walk suffers too because I’m not doing my duty as her husband to “wash her in the Word” (Ephesians 5:26).

When my faith sleeps, I’m quicker to spout off sarcasm when the time doesn’t call for it or become cynical about many things. When I let my faith take a nap, I am too quick to listen to gossip or not “take everything thought captive to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

When my faith sleeps, my old, sinful nature takes over and I do, say, and think things that don’t honor Christ. It is in those moments where I lose my fight against sin because I am flying on autopilot, so to speak, and not resting in Jesus.

How do we make sure our faith doesn’t sleep? How do we ensure our faith stays strong, steadfast, and able to withstand temptation?

One word: intentionality.

If I’m not intentional about something, then it’s that much harder to complete said task. I think back to this D.A. Carson quote:

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

Every Christian needs to be intentional because holiness requires effort. Like Carson wrote, people do not drift toward holiness. I naturally drift toward laziness and procrastination. What I must do—what we must all do—is simply be intentional.

Now, it does no good for me to say we must be intentional without explaining what we must be intentional about.

Intentional with reading the Bible. This might look like setting a reminder everyday—whatever time of day—to read Scripture for at least 15 minutes. What breathing is to physical life, reading Scripture is to our spiritual life. We need the Bible. If we don’t read, our spiritual life will suffer. And don’t just read, but study. Know God more.

Intentional about praying. The less I pray, the more it reveals I think I don’t need God. “Prayerless,” Owen Strachan wrote, “is functional atheism.” Some find it easier to pray than to study Scripture, and vice versa. Both, however, are incredibly important for our spiritual health. Our knees should be bloody from so much prayer if we really believe God is listening—and He is.

Intentional about church life. Yes, Christian, you need to go to church. No, I don’t mean just attend. You need to be active within your local church. You will come to find that much of your sanctification hinges on belonging to a biblical local church, as becoming more like Jesus is a community project. Church—real, in-person church—should be a priority in your life.

Intentional about discipleship. This is connected to church life, but ensure that you’re being discipled by someone. We all need one another to help us grow. The local church as a whole is wonderful, but having one-on-one interaction with someone where you’re able to be candid is important.

There are certainly other areas to be intentional—marriage, parenthood, work, etc.—but those are the main four, I think. To make sure our faith doesn’t sleep, we must be intentional, we must be mindful of living our lives coram Deo—before the face of God.