Wishes and Prayers Series - What if Doubts Arise
Many of us fantasize that faith will give us things: we'll feel safe and protected. We will know precisely what to do. Everything we do will have the precise outcome we want.
Put differently: we will be in control. Right....
Choose Faith Faith, as I’ve come to comprehend it, has nothing to do with being in command. And everything to do with letting go of it. One of my friends, Paul, has owned a successful company for more than 25 years. This year he’s experienced his first severe slump in income. A spiritually devoted individual who confidently anticipated abundance from the universe, Paul was floored to find himself worried about cash. “I’m a self-made success. I thought I had faith in spirit. When the cash started to dry up, I got frightened and felt lost. I realized I truly didn’t have faith.” The hope to have faith is a deep, heartfelt desire. It swells from your heart if you seek a truer way to live from spirit. It frequently swells if trouble comes along.
Many of us forget that the only way to feel faith – not simply talk about it – is to let it carry us through a time of conflict. If you ask for faith, the universe will answer you. It will show you precisely where you are with faith today. That commonly means you, like Paul, might become sorely aware of the fact that you don’t have faith.
Then you have to decide to select faith. Paul gave up the fantasy that faith would, as if by magic, prevent him from ever getting concerned again. Rather he became honest with himself if he felt fear. However, he didn’t remain stuck in fear: he accepted its presence – and declared that his faith was solider than his fear. He made this declaration over and over, strengthening faith by selecting it. The first change Paul noted when he began selecting faith over fear was a sense of being taken care of. “My business was still going through its worst year ever, however for some reason I felt things would be all right.” Paul continued to react to business challenges by selecting faith. He kept on focusing on how great it felt to believe things would work out for him, even if conditions were other than what he needed them to be. Within a couple of weeks, Paul noticed an exciting change. “One day I got up and felt different. My brain was flooded with fresh ideas for my business. I felt alive and excited about my work in a way that I hadn't felt in a long time.”
From that point on Paul’s faith brought him numerous new opportunities for returning his business to prosperity.
According to Paul: “I feel so thankful for the issues I had because they brought me back – not simply to a thriving business, however to a totally new understanding of faith. Faith was simply a concept to me previously. Now it is a way to live daily.”
If you, like Paul, find yourself with a real desire for faith, expect to get the blessing of a time of trouble. Trouble gives you the chance to consciously select faith over fear.
As you fortify your habit of selecting faith, you experience firsthand how faith carries you along on its all-embracing, safe wings.