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The Secret Of Faith
Where does one find faith in the midst of turmoil, doubt, and disease? How do you find comfort in the pain of life’s blows? When does faith kick in the midst of a broken heart? Is there such a place to rekindle ones spirit, to regain a sense of faith in the presence of loss? I asked these questions during times when my back was against the wall, when there seemed like there was nothing to support me. As I walked my path seeking faith in a world that was not delivering answers, I had no real evidence of spiritual faith. I kept bumping into walls of resistance. My faith was broken.
Even though I sought for insights, revelations and answers around certain issues in my life, it was difficult at times to accept those answers when they arrived. And another round of questions would ensue. Why wasn’t I accepting answered prayer? Why the resistance? Then one day I heard the still small voice speak to me, ‘you lack faith. You’re not allowing faith to take flight in your life.’ When I heard this, I felt the truth. It was true, there it was, and I lacked faith in the spiritual world and had the faith of a champion in this physical world. I also had created blind spots of faith in the distractions of external material things. These worked to give me a false sense of success and comfort – if only momentary. I was so used to my pain and suffering, I had faith in it. I could rely on my pain to comfort me. Faithfully I could turn to my misery and know how’d I feel and receive comfort where comfort was surely not to be found.
The reassurance of something so comfortable was good enough for me, but Spirit had other plans for me, as Spirit always does. The lesson here is when we place our faith in appearances, people and things we are attaching ourselves to illusions, which will always result in some kind of misery when the illusions fade. Placing our strength, power and glory on fake idols sets ourselves up as victims of our own false beliefs, the fruits of our own labors. Placing our faith in anything other than God we turn away from our peace of mind and sanity. The secret of living a faithful life is that we must loose our faith in the world and turn to the Great Knower of Life and have Faith in a Power and Presence that knows all and is all.
In the holy bible, the secret of faith lives within its’ writings. One of the strongest is from the words that Jesus spoke of, “Take no thought for your life.” Can you imagine taking no thought for your life, allowing all sense of planning, manipulating and plotting to completely dissolve away? What would happen? How would you spend your days?
Could you give up your ‘to do list’ and be completely okay with being guided by spirit’s inner guidance system? It is these questions we must ask ourselves, as well as putting our energy towards life affirming activities, if we want to experience the dance of faith.
Spending time contemplating your life without taking thought for what you shall eat or drink will cause a great opening within you. You’ll allow for the great mystery of life to unfold through you because you gave up your precious agenda. If you’re not taking thought for your life, if you’re resting in Spirit, knowing that all and everything that is required for you to live your life is already taken care of and you’re living from that embodiment of Truth, then you’re tapping into the secret of faith.
In order for faith to effectively work in your life you must be conscious of it. Faith is an activity of consciousness, you must be conscious of something for it to work. Just like using electricity. You know if you were to enter a dark room and turn on the switch, the room would light up. You have faith in the invisible current of electricity showing up for you, you have faith in it. This principle of electricity also applies to the invisible essence of God in your life. Whether or not you choose to turn on the light switch is your choice, but to say that electricity is not real is denying nature. You get to choose to consciously activate faith by turning to it, for it is always operating. Turning to faith allows for divine grace to flow in your life, instead of the apparent problems in the world, is another secret of faith.
Living a life of faith is a lifestyle of knowing all is well regardless of the appearances. You must cultivate a practice of sowing seeds of love, compassion and wellbeing because in doing so you’ll see faith operating in your life so that you won’t be scrambling
for faith when you’re faced with life’s curve balls. The understanding and practice of faith is an authentic, audacious practice of living a spiritual life. Faith reminds us that at the end of the day we trust God to run his universe without any help from us. Trusting divine guidance invites us to surrender our conditioned mind to the openness of infinite wisdom. Knowing thyself is a healthy place to start discerning God’s will and direction in our lives. Faith trusts that divine spirit knows better than our conditioned mind.
What is being asked of our selves is that we release ownership of our lives and we let the same power that operates the universe, operate our life. Maintaining this conviction of faith will show up in the good times and the so-called bad times. As we begin to lean into faith and place our lives in the hands of God, we’ll learn our own secret of faith allowing our lives to shine the glory and grace of God.
Keeping our sights on faith will allow us to rest in our own skin, to relax in the comfort of taking no thought about tomorrow, regarding what we shall do, wear or eat. In the book, The Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes, writes ‘what is fear? Nothing more or less than negative use of faith…. Faith misplaced.’ When we’re projecting ourselves into the future based on fear, faith is absent.
We must believe in the qualities of what we’re seeking. Having a blind faith in a something, or someone sets us up for disappointments because we’re wishing it will work out based on a fatalist attitude; what will be, will be. True devotion to living a faithful life is being aware that faith is happening all the time. In the DVD, The Secret, it teaches that we’re always creating our reality. What we put out there comes back to us. When we move in the direction of wanting to experience love, peace of mind, joy, happiness and prosperity we will soon see that we generate these experiences and our responses to life by what we hold onto in our thinking. If you’re living in fear; you can have faith that your days will be laced with fear. If you’re living with love, you can have faith that you days will be paved with love. Set up a practice of surrendering in small ways and begin a pattern of allowing the divine to assist in guiding you effortlessly towards the qualities you seek.
When we actively turn to divine faith, we leave behind our human concepts of faith, and rest in the organic mechanics of Life knowing that there is an intelligence that governs All of Life. Faith is a byproduct of knowing that your life is not separate from the Life of God. When the illusions of duality fade, and the transparency of Truth is more paramount, the activity of Faith simply shines forth as answered prayer. Be gentle with yourself, allow for the seedlings of the divine to break new ground as you embark on your faithful spiritual path. Water frequently with loving intention and keep the faith.
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Published: Jan 11,2009 13:57
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Andy Cowan
Andy Cowan, an award-winning writer, whose credits include Cheers and Seinfeld, regularly contributes humor pieces to the Los Angeles Times and the CBS Jack FM Radio Network.
Paul M. J. Suchecki
Paul M. J. Suchecki has more than 30 years of experience as an award winning writer, producer, and cameraman. He's written numerous newspaper and magazine articles. Currently he writes, produces and shoots for LA CityView Channel 35 and his more than 250 articles for Ehow.com are approaching half a million readers.
Coby Kindles
Coby Kindles is a freelance journalist, screenplay writer and essayist. She has been a staff writer at Knight Ridder and a regular contributor to The Associated Press.
Debbie Milam
Debbie Milam is a syndicated columnist for United Press International, an occupational therapist, family success consultant, and motivational speaker with more than 20 years experience. Her work on stress management, spirituality, parenting, and special-needs children has been featured in over 300 media outlets including First for Women, The Miami Herald, Elle, Ladies Home Journal, The Hallmark Channel, PBS and WebMD.
Dan Rafter
Dan Rafter has covered the residential real estate industry for more than 15 years. He has contributed real estate stories to the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Business 2.0 Magazine, Home Magazine, Smart HomeOwner Magazine and many others.
Jack Nargundkar
Jack Nargundkar has been repeatedly published in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. He is also an author of "The Bush Diaries" published in July 2005.
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