Faith & a Simple Life

A comfortable faith comes from a place of trust, familiarity, and regular practice. Just as when you first begin getting to know someone new, your relationship goes through a bit of awkwardness and uncertainty. But once you spend more time with that person and begin to share experiences, the comfort level when you are around them increases. 

In this episode, we will discuss how to reach a place of comfort, find out how to deal with the discomfort we may experience, and, if you are willing, accept the challenge to bring a deeper level of comfort to your faith.

 Faith & a Simple Life - Amazon
Faith & a Simple Life Companion Workbook - digital product through The Farm Wife Shop

Transcript

There is just something about living a Simple Life that can leave you feeling calm and content. Rather than actively engaging in a busy, unproductive life, you learn to focus on, and engage with the things which have meaning and purpose – your faith, home, family, passions, and community. 

The most important aspect of my Simple Life is faith. God is my go-to. He is the first One I celebrate with when something wonderful happens. He is the One I run to when things get unbearable. And He is the One who I quietly whisper with when I am watching a simple bee dance among the flowers and clover. 

He is also the One who just sits with me in the back yard while we watch the cows in the pasture, listen to the orchestra of the night, and He chuckles with me over the antics of our three resident bats as they chase bugs for their dinner. And all of this takes place without a single word being spoken. 

It is this simple faith which led me to write the book Faith and a Simple Life. This doesn’t mean my life is a reproduction of a Disney movie, where the character is laughing, singing with the birds, and skipping happily through life. I have my share of ogres chasing after me. But instead of poison apples, my ogres come in the shape of fear, disappointment, discouragement, even anger, and some serious temptations. 

However, my faith brings me comfort, even when being chased by ogres. God is always there to share the joys and to listen to my woes. 

But one thing I’ve learned – we may have faith. We may believe in Jesus, but often feel our faith is a bit weak. Or we may want to spend more time in quiet worship, but don’t know where to start. 

In Faith and a Simple Life, I can help you get started by learning how to set up your Inner Room, learning how to pray without ceasing, and applying faith to the other areas of your simple life, such as homemaking, gardening, relationships and more. 

But for today’s podcast, I want to talk about learning how to have a ‘comfortable’ faith. What I have learned is that the more comfortable you are with your faith, the easier it will be to apply the things you learn in the book. 

Let’s face it – if we have to deal with something that is uncomfortable to us, we usually deal with it with a side order of grumbling, discouragement, and if at all possible, downright avoidance.

The same thing applies if you aren’t comfortable with your faith. But in order to get comfortable with our faith, we first need to understand what exactly that means. 

Having a ‘comfortable faith’ doesn’t necessarily mean your life will always be easy or without challenges. In fact, difficulties, trials and hardships are a natural part of life, and we can’t get around them, no matter how much we want to or how hard we try. Instead, having a strong comfortable faith means knowing we have someone to run to, when things start to go south. 

It helps to make God a natural part of daily life. Just as you know the house needs to be cleaned in order to maintain a healthy home, and the garden will require weeding in order to produce an abundant harvest, adding time for faith in your daily routine will lead to comfort over time. 

A comfortable faith comes from a place of trust, familiarity, and regular practice. Just as when you first begin getting to know someone new, your relationship goes through a bit of awkwardness and uncertainty. But once you spend more time with that person and begin to share experiences, the comfort level when you are around them increases. 

The same is true with your faith. The more time you spend with God, whether that be through prayer, Bible study, or even quiet reflection, the more He becomes less of an ‘outsider’ and more deeply integrated in your heart. 

Having a comfortable faith also means a deeper level of confidence in Him. Knowing that God is present, and His plans are good – even in the worst of times – and understanding that you don’t have to have everything figured out, helps your soul to find rest in Him. 

 But to have a comfortable faith, you need to spend time with God. Your comfort level will grow with practice and patience. To do this, you need to find the time to spend with Him. 

First, look at your daily schedule. For me, I ‘split’ my time. I get up long before the sun rises, and spend quiet time sitting outside, just focusing on Him, and offering up prayers of gratitude and guidance for my day. In the evenings, I head to my ‘Inner Room’ where I have all of my study guides, notebooks, and Bibles ready to read and study deeper. 

And what I mean by my ‘Inner Room’ is having a dedicated space for devotions, prayer, and Bible study. This space helps to keep me focused and on task. Matthew 6:6 tells us to ‘go into your inner room and close the door’. I talk more about this Inner room in the book, but I’ve also found that by having one, it adds another layer of peace and comfort to my faith. 

Developing prayer as a habit encourages you to spend more time with God. And it’s the easiest way to feel more comfortable with Him as well. Learn how to integrate prayer into everything you do. Are you driving to work? Pray. Are you washing dishes? Pray. Pray when you are cooking, pray when you are cleaning, pray when you are choosing which clothes you will wear tomorrow. A good way to integrate even more prayer into your day is to develop a habit of praying when commercials come on when you are watching television, or praying while you knit, crochet, or doing any other type of handcraft. 

Another way to deepen your comfort with faith is to turn studying scripture into a personal journey. The more you read the Bible, the more you study what it is telling you, the more exposed to God you are, and the closer you become. Psalm 28:7 says: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Now that is a level of comfort we should aspire to achieve!

But finding comfort in your faith isn’t always easy. Instead, some of us have a strong ‘discomfort’ with the very idea of God. A few of us may have moments of doubt and uncertainty. Others may experience fear of judgment. And as much as it hurts me to say this, some of us see God as an overbearing, angry being who sits on His celestial throne just waiting to punish us. 

On the contrary – God actually ‘delights’ in us. David, in Psalm 18:19 tells us “He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” That doesn’t sound overbearing and angry at all.

When we struggle with doubt and uncertainty, we question God’s presence, or even whether our faith is even strong enough to ever be comfortable spending time with Him. These moments can be even more difficult because they challenge the very foundation of our belief. 

Too often, we feel as if we aren’t ‘good enough’. That may be in how we live our lives, having a strong enough faith, or worrying about what others may think. Feeling ‘less than’ can stir up anxiety, and we begin to wonder if our faith is true, or if it is just a performance to please others.

And even if our faith is normally strong, we may also go through seasons where we feel disconnected with God. Our prayers seem to go no further than the ceiling, we begin to experience feelings of guilt, or we just get so busy that our devotion time seems to get sidetracked by our daily activities, and we wake up one morning and realize we haven’t spent quality time with God in weeks or months. 

And that is one of the great beauties of having comfort in your faith. Discomfort doesn’t mean you are failing. Instead, these challenges can actually draw us closer to God, and act as a way to teach us to rely on Him rather than our own strength. When you finally have that wake-up call that you have drifted away from Him, it’s actually an opportunity to lean in and draw closer. 

When you do begin to feel discomfort in your faith, the first important step is to admit your doubt, uncertainties, and fears. Don’t pretend everything is smooth sailing. Instead, seek understanding. Take the time to explore why you feel disconnected. Think about the reasons your having those doubts. And if necessary, keep a faith journal, and write down your thoughts and feelings. And then, make sure you note what you’ve done, scriptures you’ve read, or even prayers you’ve spoken that have helped you to overcome the problems. Writing things down helps to clarify your thoughts, but also may help when you have uncertainty again in the future.  

And then, allow God to work through all those doubts, uncertainties, and fears. It may surprise you, but feeling discomfort in your faith isn’t a sign of weakness. Instead, it’s an indication that you’re growing in your faith. The book of Psalms describes many times when David cried out in distress. And I can’t help but think about Peter who was initially brave enough to climb out of a boat and walk across water. And he actually did it – at least, until he looked away from Jesus. But if you keep reading in Matthew 14:28-31, you’ll see that Jesus didn’t hesitate. Instead, He immediately reached out His hand to Peter. 

Trust that God is working in your circumstances. Whether it is normal trials in life, or even in your doubt, uncertainties, and fears. He is right there in the middle of it, reaching out His hand to keep you on the surface of the water. 

When you begin to have comfort in your faith, it naturally extends to other areas of your life. When faith becomes a source of comfort, it’s easier to incorporate it into every decision and action you make on a daily basis. It can help you with managing your home, assist you with resolving conflicts in relationships, aid you in deepening the connections with family and friends – and believe it or not, it can even make weeding the garden a more enjoyable activity!

If faith is an important part of your life, start taking steps towards making it more comfortable. Remember - anything worth doing takes time and effort. But the rewards are worth shouting about. They become deeper, more peaceful, and filled with a joy that just adds to our comfort. 

If you enjoyed this visit on the porch, let me offer you a challenge. This week, find time to create your inner room, schedule at least 30 minutes a day with God, and look for all the times you can pray throughout the busyness of the day. And if you discover it works and helps to deepen your comfort with God and your faith – go ahead and repeat the challenge for the rest of the month. 

You may just discover that your comfort level with God becomes so deep, it’ll become one of the best moments of your day. 

If you want to learn more about living a Simple Life, just visit my website at www.thefarmwife.com/ . If you’re enjoying listening to these podcasts, please consider supporting the show by clicking the SUPPORT button in the show notes. When you do, you’ll be helping me continue bringing you fun and helpful ideas for living the Simple Life you love!

If you have questions or just want to stop in for a visit, you can do that through email at thevirtualporch@gmail.com. And be sure to subscribe – you don’t want to miss a single conversation. I'll be sitting on the porch every Monday morning waiting for your visit!

Thanks again for stopping in. I will see you next week on Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View. And while you are waiting for the next episode, grab that glass of refreshment, pull up a rocker, and sit back for a while. It’s time to relax and enjoy.