(Photo courtesy of: Amazon) “The book is available to purchase for those who want to read it.”
Nicholas Ewing
Connector Staff
It was the last Friday devotional of the semester before winter break. Students were wrapping up finals and sharing plans on what they wanted to accomplish before the spring semester started. Isaac Roberts, the student campus minister, asked the congregation, “What are your goals for the winter break? What challenges are in your way that prevent them from being accomplished?” Sometimes people set themselves goals but do not act to accomplish them – prompting the congregation to explore how their faith may help them accomplish new goals.
The Boston Church of Christ, a student-run ministry registered with UMass Lowell, distributed a book, “Radical Faith: 10 Faith Secrets that Will Make Faith in God Work Personally, Powerfully and Persistently”, written by Randy McKean. McKean details what it means to have “radical” faith in God to help Christians get through difficult times and the ten “secrets” one can do to grow in their faith.
McKean writes with the messaging that God wants his children to live to please Him, so they must live the life God wants them to live. “God created [you] for success—to victoriously live the kind of life that [you] were created to live—to have marriage, family and career success. God wants me to enjoy life now and to live with Him forever. But this life only comes together when we live a life of RADICAL FAITH,” said McKean, encouraging that God wants Christians to have the conviction to follow his commands and to give Him glory.
If living a life of radical faith is obeying God’s will in one’s life, then how does one grow in their faith? What if one’s faith is as small as a mustard seed? McKean outlined ten “secrets” one can do to grow in their faith: read the Bible; be humble; visualize oneself accomplishing large faith goals; hold fast to God’s promises; pray often and regularly; finish the faith goals; reason with God in prayer; share faith with gentiles; be financially generous; and, lastly, set ever increasing faith goals to grow.
To focus on the more commonly missed methods, Christians can grow in their faith by dreaming of large faith goals. If one has small dreams, then they will accomplish small things; but if one has large dreams, then they will accomplish so much more. The same is true with spiritual goals with Jesus. It may sound lofty, but even a small start can mean so much. In Matthew 17:15-20, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” The mountain is a metaphor for large sins in a Christian’s life that prevent them from living God’s will. It might feel impossible for one to overcome one’s mountains, but with deep faith, a Christian can move their sin or their mountain to be a better disciple.
Returning to Isaac Robert’s question of what prevents people from accomplishing the goal that they set for themselves, McKean answers that Christians do not finish their faith goals because they reject God’s power and rely on their own power. McKean said, “Why don’t we complete what we start? It’s because we take our eyes off Jesus who is the object of our faith… When we take our eyes off Jesus, we focus on ourselves and on our own limitations. We start working based on our power instead of relying on God’s power…” McKean calls Christians to imagine believing one can accomplish the impossible without having faith in God to get there: That is a disconnect. Christians can be connected to God through Jesus to finish the faith goals they started for themselves.
