One year ago, on Sunday, January 13th, 2019, I launched Words of Faith, Hope & Love!
I can still remember when the idea of starting a blog first crossed my mind. It was weird and didn’t make much sense. I wasn’t a writer. I didn’t know anything about blogging, I didn’t even know any blogger. Moreover, I had been saved for barely three years; what did I know? What could I possibly say about God?
But this idea that began as a mustard seed soon blossomed into a tree that I could not ignore. So, I decided to trust God and answer His call to start a blog. And on Sunday, November 25th, 2018, I purchased this domain.
After seven weeks of preparation, frustrations from trying to understand WordPress (seriously the struggle was real!), I hit the launch button! I chose January 13 because the name of the blog comes from 1 Corinthians 13:13. I also published the blog at 13h13 (yes, I am that person). Consequently, I have been scheduling my posts to go live on Sundays at 1h13pm.
Like many new bloggers, I assumed a multitude of people would instantly flock to my site once it became live. I pictured my blog launch like a grand opening of a store where tons of people would rush in once the doors opened. But I got splashed with reality when no one read my blog for many weeks!
Nevertheless the slow start, blogging has blessed me in several ways.
1. It helped me assess my spiritual growth
Most of my first posts were inspired by some hard situations I had experienced. But I never noticed the lessons I learned from my trials until I had to reflect on them for my writing. It made me realize how much I had grown in my faith. I noticed that I reacted to trials differently. My time of despair and pity party had significantly decreased, while my trust in God had increased considerably. It was a great encouragement to see such evidence of God’s work in my life.
2. It helped me grow in my knowledge of God
Sharing heresy has been one of my greatest fears since starting this blog. I take James 3:1 very seriously, and I am terrified of leading someone astray. Therefore, I do a lot of study and research to make sure I am biblically accurate in my posts. As a result, I learned more theology ever before. And the more I learned more, the more I became aware of some faulty beliefs I held and corrected them on my posts. I once considered pausing my blog to learn more theology. But since it’s through preparing and writing blog posts that I learn, I decided to continue.
3. It expanded my world
Before starting this blog, I lived under the proverbial rock. I knew a handful of theologians, Bible teachers or Christian influencers. I was only familiar with famous names like Joel Osteen, Steven Furtick, and T.D Jakes. But thanks be to God; I never followed their ministries. But as I started actively using social media to promote my blog, I discovered many wonderful Christian bloggers, pastors, and teachers who taught me a lot about the Word of God. Men like Paul Washer, John MacArthur, R.C Sproul, Voddie Baucham, etc. Can you believe I never knew them before 2019?
4. It sharpened my discernment skills
I discovered a few Christian discernment ministries through blogging, which has been incredibly beneficial. I foolishly believed anyone who called himself a pastor was qualified and taught the truth. But when I discovered and watched American Gospel: Christ alone, I quickly repented from that erroneous thought. I never knew they were so many false teachers and teachings plaguing the church. It also made me realize that one of my favorite pastors was questionable, and a couple of practices I learned from him were unbiblical. Since then, I have been more cautious and selective of what I let influence me, and what I share or endorse on the blog.
5. It made me realize my lack of Christian education
As previously mentioned, blogging made me discover theology and fall in love with it. But it also made me realize how little I knew about Christianity! I didn’t know doctrines, church history, influential people of the faith, classic Christian books, etc. Since no one mentored me as a new Christian, and I never had close Christian friends, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But I have been working on my education and got a stack of Christian books to read this year.
6. It gave me an outlet to share my thoughts
I am the kind of person who loves to share everything I learn. As most of my entourage is not Christian, my blog has been a great outlet to release all this knowledge. It doesn’t matter if I read all the books or take all the classes if all this knowledge stays with me and does benefit others; it is vain. As Paul said, knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. My blog also provided an outlet to share my thoughts and ease my mind.
7. It gave me joy in inspiring others
My favorite blessing of all has been the privilege to inspire others in their faith. Whenever I received a comment from someone saying one of my posts encouraged them, or helped them know Jesus better; it brought me indescribable joy. God, in His goodness, often sent these little messages on days when I felt discouraged. And it immensely cheered me up. Even if my blog never reaches millions of views, just knowing it helped one individual will always be worth all my efforts in it.
Blogging has indeed been a blessing and a tool in God’s hand to mold me. But the journey hasn’t been all roses and butterflies. It came with a lot of work, learning and developing new skills, and even heartaches. But in light of all these incredible benefits, it’s well worth it. God knew what He was doing! And if that was just the first year, I can’t wait to see what the future holds!
With all that being said, here are my top 10 posts of my first-year blogging. These are the posts that received the most views on the blog. I know some bloggers also share their stats, but I think I will keep that one for myself for now 😉.
- Waiting on God: How to do it Well
- How to Share Your Testimony
- 30 Encouraging Bible Verses for Hard Times
- Bible 201: How to Study the Bible
- Why Does God Wait Until the Last Minute to Help Us
- 4 Dangerous Prayers that will Wreck Your Life
- 10 Names of God and How to Pray Them
- The PSALM Bible Study Method
- 1 John: The Marks of a True Christian
- 12 Christian Songs to Encourage You During Hard Times
