Endorsements
Deep and relatable. Spending forty days in Scripture along with A Habit Called Faith could be one of the best things you do this year. Jen is one of the greatest writers of our generation!
Jennie Allen , New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head , founder and visionary of IF:Gathering
No matter your faith journey, you are welcome here within these pages. Jen warmly invites readers into a forty-day experience that will forever change the root of the readers faith. Allow yourself to become vulnerable as you take a deep dive into discovering the joy waiting on the other side of an authentic relationship with the Father.
Rebekah Lyons , bestselling author of Rhythms of Renewal and You Are Free
As a pastor, Im often asked for resources that aid in daily Bible reading, and I often dont know how to respond. Many Bible study resources tend to be either saccharine and superficial or turgid and inaccessible. And this is why A Habit Called Faith is such a needed and vital book. Jen Pollock Michel has given us a resource that has paired smart, theologically rich insight with writing that is warm and evocative. This book invites us into the story of Scripture and the stories of regular men and women who have taken up this habit of faith. And, wonderfully, Michel makes room for readers wherever they are in their life of faithwary skeptics and longtime disciples are both welcomed in and helped by this gift of a book. Best of all, A Habit Called Faith made me eager to read the Scriptures more often, to enter more deeply into this story of redemption, and to take up this habit called faith anew.
Tish Harrison Warren , Anglican priest and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life
In every area of life, we know that thriving comes at the price of submitting to regular, best practices. Thriving athletes (and healthy people in general) submit to best nutrition and fitness practices, thriving musicians to best instrument and vocal practices, thriving parents and spouses to best family practices, thriving leaders to best organizational practices, and the list goes on. And yet, quite oddly, many believeor at least behave as if thriving faith is something that will just happen to us, all on its own. As with every worthwhile pursuit, a thriving and sustained faith will stand or fall on whether we submit to best spiritual practices. For this reason, Im so thankful for people like Jen and for resources like A Habit Called Faith . Especially in an age like ours in which so many souls are languishing from passive neglect, I cant think of a more needed book.
Scott Sauls , senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of Jesus Outside the Lines and A Gentle Answer
Getting into genuinely life-changing habits is never easy, but with Jen Michel as a companion, embarking on regular Bible reading will become more of a burden-lifting than burden-creating practice. For all looking to start, restart, or refresh daily time with God, this is the book for you.
Sam Allberry , speaker and author of Why Bother with Church? and Seven Myths about Singleness
Jen Pollock Michel is one of my favorite living writers. This book calls us to see knowing God as not just cerebral assent but as formation and habit, as living a life through the One who is Life. A Habit Called Faith will help to strengthen you when you are wavering, encourage you when you are doubting, and call you back to your life in Christ when you start to feel you are losing your way.
Russell Moore , president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
Today the Bible is often seen as a strange artifact from the past, with Christian beliefs viewed as exotic and irrelevant. The result is that in some corners of the West, the Christian faith has not simply been rejected; it has mainly been left untried. And yet, there remains a hunger for something beyond the dominant secular story lines of our age. This means that while people sometimes sense a need for something more than the shallow scripts secularism has to offer, they are also suspicious of any attempt to dust off ancient sources that claim to be a divine guide. Jen Pollock Michel models a way forward by inviting skeptics and doubters to come and see that Christianity does not just claim to be trueit claims to work. But only by stepping into the Bible and trying it on can one see if it works. So Jen welcomes everyone to come along on a journey to see , not only by navigating us through the smaller biblical plotlines (in Deuteronomy and the Gospel of John) but also by winsomely mapping these within the bigger story line of the Bible and engaging with the twists and turns of our modern lives. A Habit of Faith is a book that believers and unbelievers alike should readand ideally read together.
Joshua Chatraw , director of the Center for Public Christianity and author of Telling a Better Story
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
2021 by Jen Pollock Michel
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2875-5
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Some names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.
The author is represented by Alive Literary Agency, www.aliveliterary.com.
Dedication
To Esther, Jill, and Mabel:
Remember the blue heron
and consider his mighty wings.
Deuteronomy 33:26
Contents
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Believer in Belief
A Note to the Reader
Mark Lawrence: God, I dont know if you exist, but Im going to act like you do.
DAY Lend Me Your Ears
DAY 2 Oh, the Places Youll Go
DAY 3 Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall
DAY 4 No Do-Over
DAY 5 To Have and to Hold
Ian Cusson: This is real. This is truth. I dont have any rational way of explaining why this is real and true except that it is.
DAY 6 The Moment Called Now
DAY 7 Practice Your Lines
DAY 8 His Name Is Jealous
DAY 9 Fieldnotes from the Wilderness
DAY 10 Signs and Wonders
DAY 11 Theres No Place Like Home
DAY 12 Five Words of Faith
DAY 13 Worrying for Gods Reputation
DAY 14 The Question of Appetite
DAY 15 No Mercenary Affair
Kevin Feiyu Li: I planned a lot of things in my life. Being a Christian was never one of them.
DAY 16 No Cherry-Cheeked Santa Claus
DAY 17 Heart Surgery
DAY 18 The With-God Life
DAY 19 The Laboring God
DAY 20 The Bookends of Blessing
Mika Edmondson: If you will save me, then I will live for you.
DAY 21 Where We Left Off
DAY 22 That Wine Will Preach
DAY 23 On Getting Fidgety
DAY 24 A Ringing World of Praise
DAY 25 The Great Mystery
Premi Suresh: I started to realize how the gospel changes everything.
DAY 26 Gods Gift of Bread