A significant amount of Americans have a professed belief in a particular faith, be it Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, and so forth. This belief in God, and a respect or love for God and his prophets often brings comfort for many people as well as a source of solace in times of pain and difficulty. The thing is that every religion, somewhat akin to a learned trade, demands something in return from those that are practitioners of that particular faith or work. That is to say, to really be a good Christian, you must not only have a basic understanding of what the religion represents, but you must also live up to that representation in your life and your actions, as well as for those that have a degree in Engineering, for instance, must know their craft and exercise their skills and knowledge in a competent way so as to make their living by it.
Although it is fair to say that many of us do not feel qualify to proselytize or to teach someone the art of our particular trade, there is an incumbent responsibility for every believer to stay consistent with, as well as to uphold their beliefs in the public sphere. That means that those that are Sunday believers, or perhaps only for the actual time spent within that church on Sunday, andthen on all the other days of the week, they are their "real" self, are at best, nominal believers, and for all practical purposes, hypocrites to their faith. The type of belief that is painted so faintly upon a person's demeanor is lukewarm at best, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth," Revelation 3:16.
Most believers, however, actually do believe that they are of the flock, and will justify their belief by demonstrating actions that they have done on behalf of their faith, such as monetary donations, donations of time and labor to their church, the bringing up of children in the faith, bible study, prayer, and the observance of faith-based limitations on their behaviors, as all being representative examples of their good deeds and good works. While one must respect this type of devotion as having substance, the true test of any substantive faith is when it is tested in the cauldron of life's vicissitudes.
There will be times, perhaps even every day, but more often not, to which your faith will most definitely be the real issue of your test, whether recognized by yourself or not. It is in these times, that your real implicit belief will be shown to be incorruptible and thereby strong like a shining shield or on the other hand your belief will cower down and fade as if it never existed. If, when given to the test, you know explicitly that something that you are being challenged to do, challenged to conform to, challenged to be or not to be, and you conform to what it is because you fear for your bodily safety, suffering, privation, or similar, you have effectively written in stone exactly the type of man that you really are.
Do not fool yourself, and claim that you are what you are not, because those that will not stand with their faith in times of a significant test which harbors a significant cost will surely reap exactly what they have sowed. True faithfulness, means true commitment, and if you are not a good and faithful servant to your Lord, than you never truly were part of the faith or part of the flock, rather instead, you represent in truth: fool's gold. So too you cannot ever be a secret believer, believing that your faith is your own little private secret between you and your Lord, thinking that God will understand your discretion and applaud you for it, whereas in truth, it's a house made out of straw, unable to withstand either wind or fire.