Spend a day watching TV, going to a movie, perusing the news and talking to your co-workers. How often does your faith become a part of the experience?

If you are like me, not often. TV shows rarely, if ever, have a Christian character written by someone who understands Christianity. Usually those characters are weird or eventually give in to secular thought. Movies are the same. And news and features often report on heart-warming stories, but are reluctant to include any God talk.

So does our once a week trek to a local church cut it when it comes to girding us up for daily life? Not so much. We don’t even do church well.

—7% of Christians give 10% or more of their income to God despite the biblical mandate to tithe and watch how God will bless that effort.

—Church volunteering dropped from 26% to 18% from 1991 to 2011. Now we can’t even say that 20% of the congregation does all the work!

—16% of all churchgoers read their Bible daily; 25% read it at all. Maybe this is why we lack the power to overcome difficulty in our lives. We are not putting the Word of God in our hearts.

I’m challenged by these numbers and want to do better. The Word of God is a source of power, encouragement and hope, thus, we need more, not less, in our lives. Perhaps, if we all were more disciplined in filling our minds with Christ and begin obedient to the Word, we would struggle less and live in more peace.

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