Intentional Faith (Consistency)
Originally Written on January 27, 2024. Edited on October 22, 2025.
I haven’t worked out in the past two weeks. Last year, I had a routine and it worked pretty well for me. That routine followed me into this year for about two weeks… then I started to slack off. This led me to think about how we can grow inconsistent in our faith. Just like we need to work out consistently for our muscles to grow, we need to consistently be reading the Bible, praying, going to church, and being actively faithful for us to grow closer to Christ.
This is where being intentional comes into play. We have to be intentional and disciplined to do these things if we want to grow closer to God. On top of that, we need to be intentional with how we act, what we say, and what we think, as well. Something I thought about a while ago was this: Luke 23:32 tells us, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’...” He says this while He’s on the cross, being crucified for our sins. My thought was: what if we put our names in that quote? “Father forgive Mason, for he does not know what he does.” That’s crazy to me.
He was tortured, whipped, bruised, skin torn off, bones most likely showing, crown of thorns on His head, blood dripping down His face, forced to carry a cross when He could most likely barely stand, and then hung on a cross and killed… all for us. Yet we still make excuses and find ways to not truly live for Him or get to know, really know Him. Of course, we’re all sinners and we will sin, but being a Christian takes so much intentionality. I’m not exempt from this either, I struggle daily with having pure thoughts and not saying mean things to my friends, even if it is a joke, it’s not uplifting. It’s HARD.
We have to be intentional to represent Christ. It’s not easy. It takes effort, patience, discipline, devotion, constant grace, and forgiveness for yourself and others. In the end, though, it’s worth it because we will meet God. Plus, when we’re in the world, if we’re being intentional and are good witnesses, we can help others meet Him as well. We have to be intentionally faithful. We are asked to have a relationship with God. We have to be consistently communicating (praying) and listening (reading the Bible) with and to God to have a growing relationship with God. We’re not asked to just believe and then live life, but to intentionally and consistently communicate with God and follow His word and Christ’s lifestyle because JESUS DIED FOR US!
We have free will because God is a loving God, but He wants us to have a relationship with Him and, just like every relationship, that takes consistency and intentionality. Giving our life to Jesus is a one-time thing, growing and living for Him is an everyday thing.
I’ll wrap this up with two verses. The first is Proverbs 14:23, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” This verse reminds us that as we work hard for growth, whether physically, mentally, or spiritually, we will see results. It also shows us that if we work hard to represent Christ, we will see a result with people coming to Him as well. A second verse is Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.“ If we earnestly and intentionally seek God, we will find Him. With that, I want to encourage you to be more mindful, intentional, and consistent with your faith and relationship with God.