Post #12: Stages of Faith Part II In Maroon and White

Hey y’all!

I’m so happy to be back to blogging after a period of not blogging at all. I greatly missed sharing God’s message with y’all, and also showing off some of my outfits!

For this post, I’ll be continuing something I should’ve finished awhile ago: the second part of my “Stages of Faith” post.

Since it’s been a while, I’d like to refresh your memory a bit on the first two stages of faith:

• Beginning faith:
• The people around us will begin to see changes around us
• God should begin to take the throne in our lives
• we must abandon idols
• At this stage of faith, we must begin to change our habits in order to advance in faith.

• Borrowed faith:
• Beginning to follow Christ, but in the process of learning
• trying to discover the best way of following Him and trying to change behaviors
• we can use Biblical principles and mature believers in order to inspire us and to begin the process of holding ourselves to standards
• this is the point behind fellowship

So now that I’ve given you a brief overview of the first two stages of faith (If you’d like to read in detail about them, check out my previous post! ) I’m going to jump into the third stage of faith.

Stage 3: Personal Faith

At this point of faith, we have learned the style of worship that suits us the best. However, we must not get caught up in the appearance of being a believer, rather, we must be focused on keeping our faith alive. 

My pastor used the great analogy of beautiful plates that have unappetizing food on them. While the plates may be gorgeous china plates with intricate gold detailing on them, if the food that you’re eating is not just as impressive, then plates don’t matter since the quality of what really matters is poor.

In this same way, while it is important to be different from unbelievers and we should definitely be proud of our faith, it is vital not to get so caught up in proclaiming yourself as a Christian that you forget what really matters: your personal relationship with Christ. Our walk with God must be evident to others for two important reasons:

1. If we do not act any different than those around us, it makes our very legitimate faith seem illegitimate and not worthy of commitment.
2. It also it makes it difficult to see the changes a relationship with Jesus has made in our life. Therefore, it seriously discredits our faith.

So what can we do in order to “walk the walk” and “talk the talk”? 

We must focus on maintaining the personal relationship that we fostered with Christ to begin with. That means partaking in daily prayer, daily devotionals, and giving God’s relationship the love and attention it deserves.

Many times this seems like a difficult task since we’re human beings and time gets away from us, but there are ways to incorporate it into our day.

Personally, I have an app that delivers my daily devotional every day at the exact same time, so that regardless of what I am doing, I’m reminded that I need to take ten minutes of my time and reflect on God’s word. You could also write a daily bible verse in an agenda or on a calendar that you look at everyday, or even make it something you do with friends in order to incorporate the accountability factor.

Whatever you do, make sure that you nourish and nurture God’s relationship with you, just as you would with any other relationship :)

For this outfit post, I’m sharing with you a dress that I got at Ross a while back. This dress fits me perfectly and really flatters the shape of my body without being immodest, which is why I love it so much.

Dress: Ross, $20 (?)

Shoes: Payless, $12

Tank Top: F21, $1.80

Necklace: Silver, gift from a family friend

How have y'all been?? I've missed blogging so much! Next post will be about the final stage of faith.

What stage of faith do y'all associate with the most?

Blessings!

Tiffany