Why Should You Make Your Faith Your Own?

After twenty years of teaching in four countries, I’ve discovered one problem that crosses cultures, languages, and age groups: students forget to write their names on things. From assignments that need to be turned in to frequently used items like notebooks, some students just can’t seem to remember. I can’t tell you how many notebooks and other school items were thrown away at the end of the year because no one would claim them. Had they written their names on those items, it would have been obvious who owned them. In the grand scheme of things, this is relatively minor, but it demonstrates an important idea: when we don’t claim something as our own, we are less likely to value it and it can end up being wasted.

Lot, the nephew of Abraham, is an example of this idea when it comes to faith. He was offered much: a rich spiritual heritage, yet his choices often failed to reflect it. He was brought out of a pagan culture, given evidence for who God is, and set up for success. He watched firsthand the dedication of Abraham who faithfully sought God wherever he was. He would have heard how God provided for Abraham time after time. Even when he was taken hostage by the armies of four kings, Lot himself was miraculously rescued by Abraham and just a few hundred men. Angels visited him, he witnessed evil men get struck with blindness, and he was rescued by God from certain destruction.

With this kind of spiritual inheritance and experience, you would expect Lot to follow wholeheartedly in his uncle’s steps of faith. And while regarded in the New Testament as a righteous man, he consistently made choices that compromised his faith. He continually chose a life of ease and close proximity to sin over trusting God. He wanted the best land for himself and became increasingly settled in a sinful city. Even his sons-in-law didn’t take him seriously as they thought he was only joking about the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then when it came time to flee, Lot himself hesitated and only by God’s mercy was he led out by the angels.

In the end, after losing his wife and the majority of his belongings, Lot hid in a cave. His story ends in fear and isolation, a stark contrast to the hopeful beginning. To make matters worse, his own daughters seem to have followed the corrupt culture of the cities they grew up in and the result was two nations that would oppose Israel later: the Moabites and the Ammonites. Although he had seen the faithful example of Abraham, Lot struggled to let his faith direct his daily life. His pursuit of his own interests and his decision to remain in a sinful city had painful consequences for him and his family. Lot’s story challenges us to consider whether the faith we claim is reflected in the lives we lead and serves as a reminder to take advantage of the spiritual opportunities we have been given.

Why should you make your faith your own? The faith of those around you can encourage and guide you, but it cannot replace your own trust in God. You have to move from being under the faith of someone else to personally pursuing a relationship with God. It's an important part of discipleship to choose to actually believe what the Bible teaches for yourself. It means not just going to church and related activities, but daily reading the Bible, praying, worshiping, and obeying God even when obedience costs you comfort or approval. It means leading the kind of life that if others found your “faith notebook” your name would be all over it and it would be a living testimony to God’s faithfulness and character. Many of us have been given a rich spiritual heritage like Lot: the question is what are we going to do with it?

To read more about the life of Lot, check out Genesis 13, 14, and 19.

Here are some questions to ask yourself and others to spark some spiritual conversations: 

1. Have you “written your name” on the notebook of your faith or is faith just something your family does? If someone watched your life, would your faith in God be evident?

2. What is one area of your faith you would like to grow in? What specific step could you take this week?\

3. What comforts, ambitions, or pressures might distract you from following God? How can you recognize when they are shaping your choices?