Front Porch: ​May 19, 2026

Hey Reader–

Does your faith routine actually feel like anything?

When you finish your faith routine — your devotional, your prayer, whatever it looks like — do you actually feel anything? Or do you close the app, put down the book, and go start your day feeling roughly the same as when you sat down?

This week on the Faith-Filled Home, Episode 66 — Is Your Faith Routine Actually Working — Or Just Making You Feel Better?, I'm getting into something I don't hear talked about enough — the difference between a faith routine and a faith pursuit. And I think it's going to name something you've been carrying without knowing what to call it.

This Week's Scripture

Read this not as a standard to live up to — but as a description of what you were actually made for.

A Little Porch Time

Doing all the right faith things is not the same as actually seeking God.

For about four months after the moment I fully surrendered to God, I kept Him at arm's length. I believed — genuinely, completely — but I was too scared to get close. So I went through the motions. I showed up. I did the things. And I quietly wondered why I still felt hollow. Why the faith that was supposed to change everything still felt like it was happening to someone else.

The Hebrew word in Psalm 42 translated as "pants" — arag — means to long, to cry out, to desperately reach. This is not a psalm about a deer casually strolling to a watering hole on schedule. This is a deer that is dying of thirst and will not stop until it finds water. The scholars believe this psalm was written during a time of exile — by people who had been physically separated from the temple, from worship, from everything their faith was built around. And their response to that separation wasn't to go through the motions. It was to ache. To thirst. To cry out.

That ache is the point. God isn't looking for your attendance record. He isn't scoring your quiet times. He is looking for your thirst — for the part of you that actually reaches toward Him instead of just showing up in His direction.

Here's what this means for your Tuesday. If you've been opening your Bible because you're supposed to, sitting in church and waiting to feel something that doesn't come, praying words that feel like they're going straight to the ceiling — you are not broken. You are not bad at faith. You might just be performing it instead of pursuing it. And those two things look almost identical from the outside. But one of them leads to God. And one of them just leads to exhaustion.

The thirst is the difference. And the good news — actually the really good news — is that if you're reading this email, if you've been showing up even when it felt pointless, if you've been frustrated that your routine isn't doing what you hoped it would do — that frustration? That's your thirst talking. You wouldn't be frustrated if you didn't actually want something real. And wanting something real is exactly where seeking starts.

This Week's Prayer Prompt​
​Take a few minutes with these before you move on with your day.

• The Wound: Where does your faith feel most pointless or mechanical right now? Is there a specific practice — prayer, Bible reading, church — where you consistently feel nothing? Try to name it honestly.
• The Vision: What would it actually feel like to thirst for God — to want to seek Him the way the deer pants for water? What would be different about how your faith feels day to day?
• One Small Step: What is one honest sentence you could say to God today — not rehearsed, not polished, not something that sounds right — just one true thing? What would it be?

​If you need a starting point, here is one you can use:​

Be Honest: God, I'll be honest — I've been showing up without really reaching. I've been going through the motions and I don't always know if any of it is landing. Some days it feels like I'm just talking to myself.

Ask: I'm asking You to show me what it feels like to actually thirst for You. To want this — not because I'm supposed to, but because You are worth wanting. Meet me where I am and help me reach.

Magnify: I know You are the water. Not the fence. You are what I'm actually thirsty for — and that is worth everything. Amen.

Before You Go

At some point today — not in a formal way, just honestly — ask yourself: am I doing this because I want God, or because I think I'm supposed to? You don't need the right answer. Just sit with the question. That honesty is the first reach.

"I was made to thirst for God. My longing is not a failure — it's an invitation."

When you stop performing your faith and start actually pursuing it, something shifts — not just in you, but in your home. Your kids don't catch a faith routine. They catch a faith pursuit. And what they see you reach for is what they'll learn to reach for too.

​This week on the Faith-Filled Home Podcast: Episode 66 — Is Your Faith Routine Actually Working — Or Just Making You Feel Better? I'm sharing the difference between a routine and a pursuit, why fear disguised as faithfulness keeps us stuck at the fence, and how you don't have to know how to pray to start seeking God right now. This one is anchored in a real moment — a chaotic Christmas drive and a deer I will never forget. Listen here:

You're thirsty because you were made for more.

I will see you on the porch. 💜

P.S. — Hit reply and tell me — is there a part of your faith that's felt pointless lately? What does going through the motions look like for you right now? Want a chance to be featured on the podcast? Send me a voice memo with your answer here: https://www.bemightymom.com/speakpipe/​

​Faith-Filled Home • bemightymom.com​

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