Dear Conrad - I did a lot of bad things and also lost much of the faith I had. How can I go about restoring the really strong faith that I had in God before all of this happened? I really am sorry that I put him through this, and just want to make things right. – Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

The first thing to do is repentance. I think you've gotten to that point.

From then on it’s your basic growth that we all face. We will never be as good as we could be, but we can be better than yesterday. Don't worry about what you were like 3 months ago. Worry about today and growing some since yesterday. The reason for this is this gets rid of feelings of inadequacy that might freeze you up. Just worry about the growth. Forget about the past. God has. God truly forgives and forgets.

But now you have to grow in your faith. How do you do that? It first starts with understanding what faith is. Faith is 3 things...

Knowing God's Word
Believing God's Word
Doing God's Word...

Take some time out right now to read my article on WHAT IS FAITH? [Click Here].

After you understand what Faith really is, now you can actually go about growing it. It starts with the knowing. Knowing starts with the Bible. This is done with personal daily study. Not just reading some chapter a night - but really reading it and asking yourself

1. Why did God put this passage in the Bible
2. How does it relate to me?
3. What am I learning about God in this passage?
4. How should my worship of him grow because of these attributes of God I am learning?
5. How should I change my behavior because of what I've learned?

Growth is a long and slow process. But it is totally worth it.


So in conclusion here are the steps you need to take...
1. Repent and ask for forgiveness. God wipes the slate clean. You can now be happy and start a new.
2. Understand what faith really is before you attempt to grow it.
3. Grow your faith by a devoted time to studying God, his Word, his promises, his attributes, his plan, and his commands. And have those things change you.