Welcome to 40 Days of Faith

We are so excited to kick off 2026 by focusing our hearts and minds together each day for 40 days. Senior Pastor Dr. Roger Patterson has created a powerful devotional guide written to help CityRise grow in faith. Check out his introduction below and come back here each day starting January 1st!

As I prepared to begin writing this devotional book, I began to search my files for messages and illustrations regarding faith. I simply typed in the word faith into my OneDrive search function, and a plethora of files came up in the list. As I dug into these files, I realized that in many ways, we use the word faith like the way we use the word love. We love our kids, our ice cream, and our new outfit, just as we have faith it will all work out, we have faith in Christ, or we have faith that our team will finally win the big game.

In 1987, George Michael released both the single and the album that would make him a star. It was called Faith. The chorus rang out, “You’ve got to have faith, faith, faith…Oh, you have got to have faith-a-faith-a faith.” But this begs the question: In whom or what am I to have faith? Am I to have faith in faith?

When you consider the religions of the world, you think of various faiths, and even when you describe different aspects of the Protestantism, we use the word faith to seek to capture the essence of our beliefs.

As you read the gospels, repeatedly, you see Jesus challenging or affirming the faith of his audience, whether that be the disciples, the friends of the paralytic, or the woman who reached out and touched the hem of his garment. Faith is essential to life, and whether we know it or not, we exercise it daily. The Baptist core doctrines of the Southern Baptist Convention is called, The Baptist Faith and Message.

Beyond religious faith, we exercise some level of faith, every single day. We place faith in others – airline pilots, Uber drivers, train conductors, other drivers on the opposite side of a country road barreling toward us at 75 miles per hour.

We put faith in our representatives in our local, state, and federal governments, believing that they will represent our interests and concerns while they are in office. We put faith in the “process,” believing that we will get the desired outcomes if we just keep showing up to the gym and doing the work. Further, we put faith in our doctors when we are faced with a diagnosis that rocks our world and resets our lives.

During my sabbatical in June of 2025, I was spending time with the Lord, and I came to my reading that day in the book of Hebrews. It was here that the Lord deposited the seeds of what you will read over the next 40 days. I was stirred by Hebrews 10:39 which says, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

As I read it, I thought, “Yes! Lord, help me not shrink back, but to walk in faith.” Then I wrote in my journal, “What is this faith?”

The very next verse is Hebrews 11:1. In this chapter of Scripture, we are introduced to what many writers and pastors call the “Hall of Faith.” In this hall, the writer of Hebrews celebrates the saints of the Old Testament and the way that they walked this earth. These are the ones who did not shrink back. These are the ones we are to look at if we want to know what it is to walk by faith.

As I looked at each one, I saw that the Lord was giving me something to chronicle so that others might be encouraged to grow in their understanding of what it is to walk by faith. Since the idea of faith can seem so broad, nebulous, and even hard to grasp, I want to go straight to this chapter of Hebrews and take the time to dissect the lives of these saints and how they walked well before God. You see, if we don’t understand faith clearly, it will be hard to walk by faith in such a way that pleases God. If we misunderstand who or what it is that we place our faith in, we will miss our way.

As you take this journey, I want you to know that this walk of faith is multi-faceted. Just as a diamond reveals great beauty from various cuts and angles, faith, too, is expressed in a variety of ways and situations.

My prayer is that these next 40 days strengthens the foundation of your walk with Jesus Christ. He is both the founder and object of our faith, and the One we seek to please.

Are you ready to dig in? Are you hopeful to grow in your understanding of what it is to walk by faith? Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Let’s draw near, dig in, and seek Him and trust that through this journey, our lives will be rewarded by our Lord.