Tag Archives: Faith

Gaining Momentum through Faith

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quote-sdwcom-have-faithI have many people who reach out for help in their lives tell me that they don’t think that they can ever have what they wish for in their lives. They seem to have already given up on their dreams before they have ever begun to pursue them. Whether it is something as simple as finding love, of getting out of the rut of trading an hour of their life for an hour of pay, or even some noble aspiration of doing something that will help others less fortunate than themselves. They just don’t see it happening.

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the greatest of these reasons is their lack of understanding of the power of faith. I am here to tell you that if you have dreamed it, contemplated it, or imagined it, and it is something that produces good in the world for someone besides just you, WHATEVER IT IS, IT IS POSSIBLE!

The greatest failure in life when you have something that you want or aspire to do is the failure to start working towards seeing it happen in your life. If you are someone that has been holding back and not realizing your dreams in life, change your circumstances today and begin to start working at it. If you do, you will be closer to achieving it than if you didn’t try at all. Just remember that your success or the success of any worthwhile endeavor is not an event, but a journey.

Five Steps for Increasing Your Faith

1)  Determine what you want to do with your life and the goals you have for yourself.  I have tons of things that I want to do in my life. All of them are my hopes. I love dreaming. I dream all of the time. Having an overactive mind as I do, my dreams are all over the place about things that I would like to do, want to do, or wish I could do. As I continue hoping for things, I begin dreaming about them (day and night). As this happens, a vision for each of them is eventually birthed (being able to see the big picture of how it might happen).

2) Prioritize your hopes, dreams, and visions (“goals”).  The key to determining what you want to do with your life however, is much different. You can do all sorts of things throughout your life, but you want to focus on the most important first, then build from there. An example of immediate goals would be keeping a roof over your head and keeping you fed. An example of a dream or other life goal that is not absolutely necessary for survival would be starting your own business instead of working for someone else or writing a book that will become a national best seller. Make a list of everything you wan tto do with your life, then prioritize them based upon most important/essential versus less important and nonessential.

3)  Begin reading books that will build your faith. Read books and stories of people who have overcome great challenges and done amazing things with their lives. Gain an understanding of why they did it, what inspired them, and how they overcame their challenges to achieve the things they did that made them famous.

I highly recommend reading the Bible. It is chalked full of amazing stories throughout history of what God did through average unlikely to succeed people. In fact, Scripture tells us that we can build our faith. In Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome, he writes, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,”  (Romans 10:17).

The more you read of great stories of success, the more your faith will grow in believing that you can be successful in the things that you hope or dreams of doing with your life.

4)  Take your list of things that you want to do, and start a notebook for your top hopes or dreams. If your dreams or hopes are big enough, I suggest a notebook for each one.  Before the dreams, hopes, or visions I have get to a single notebook of their own, they start on the pages of a single leather bound blank-paged book that I call my “Dream Book”.  This is where I write about things that I dream about or envision myself doing.

In addition to my Dream Book, I have several individual notebooks that are each dedicated to a single dream, hope or vision that I have been given. These are my Battle Manuals. They are my written blueprints and battle plans on how to achieve victory in my life over procrastination, fear of failure, and indecision. They give me the upper hand on the demons of my life that often chase after me in my pursuit of the dreams, hopes, and visions I have for the things I want to do in my life.

Twitter-RFTO-life-tip15)  Begin to talk about your hopes, dreams, and visions with others whom you trust and respect.  The more you talk about the things that are in your heart that you want to do, the more real and the more clear they will become to you. The more clear they become, the more possible they will become in being accomplished. As you share your hopes, dreams and visions with others, you will find that many people you share with will get excited about what you are doing or hope to do. They will want to help you. If your hope, dream, or vision is big enough and can help others enough, they will find it worth their time in helping you, because they will see the potential in what you are doing.

6)  Begin taking small incremental steps towards your goals on a daily basis. Once you have taken the time to make a list of steps that you need to take to see your goals realized, you can begin working towards your goals little by little. While having a timetable for your goals is a motivation to act upon your goals, be most concerned about simply taking the first step each day in accomplishing at least a small task that moves you closer to accomplishing the things you need to do in order to achieve your goals.

An Example of Small Incremental Steps.

Let’s say that you have a goal of wanting to start a website where you can encourage and motivate others. You want to share your life with others and the lessons you have learned along the way. At the same time, you don’t think that you have what it takes to do something like this.
The first step that you may want to take is to start a daily journal about the day to day activities of your life, the challenges you face, and how you overcame them. Nothing more. Just a simple daily journal – whether in a notebook or in a word processor on your computer. If you don’t have a word processor, simply email your daily writing to yourself and put a short title in the subject line about what you wrote about. In a few months time you will have 60 or so entries about your life and your victories in life. These daily journal posts will become the basic content for your website. With a little editing, adding a few photos, and coming up with a good title for each, you have sixty articles for your website that will be able to bless a lot of people.

It’s time to act – NOW!

If you have been encouraged by this article, consider acting on it. Take a moment and write down some of your hopes, dreams, or visions that you have had in your life that you have not yet acted upon. See where this list takes you in recognizing the potential you have to make a positive and lasting difference in the lives of others through the things that you hope and aspire to do. Watch what will happen in your life as you begin to act upon your goals as your faith grows from taking action. Your life will never be the same!

The Thieves of Faith, Hope, and Love

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quote-ten-boom-worryThere’s something about the start of a new year, a new season, or even a new chapter in our lives that causes us to hope for positive change. Oftentimes however, our past failures, mistakes, and even past sins can leave us in wonderment of whether or not we have what it takes to succeed in the things we want most for our lives – whether is it in business or relationships. We find ourselves struggling to overcome our fear of failing and we worry about repeating our past failures or making the same mistakes again. We live in uncertainty of whether or not we will fall back into destructive cycles that lead us into sin again.

When a person lives in fear of these things and worrying about their future, they strip faith from their thinking (“…the conviction of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen”). It robs them of the strength they need to press through whatever stands in their way of being successful. Instead of being filled with expectation of seeing their goals and aspirations fulfilled, and their future at its best, they live in constant anxiety and uncertainty, and experience the negative emotions that come from embracing fear and worry over that of faith and hope.

The result of this faithless worrisome mindset causes those who live in it to entertain thoughts that ultimately affect their determination to be successful in what they want to accomplish. A mindset rooted in worry robs them of the strength to persevere under hardship, trial, and tribulations; and, ultimate it affects the decisions they make (“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death”).

When we willfully choose to worry, we run the risk of being paralyzed and being unable to make important decisions in our lives or pursuing a course of action that is in our best interest. When we live in a place of fear and worry, we often shy away from commitment and rob ourselves of God’s best for our lives both in our personal and business success, and even in relationships.

Don’t let fear or worry control your life. It will rob you of your strength to succeed in those things that matter most to you. Allow faith, hope, and love to dominate your life, and fear and worry will not be able to have influence over your life.

 

Overcoming Frustration and Failure

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Frustration and failure are a part of life.

Frustration and failure are a part of life.

Frustration at work, frustration at home, frustration at school, failure in business, frustration or even failure in relationships, …these can all weigh heavy on one’s heart and ultimately affect their life. Maybe you can relate. I know I can. Overcoming frustration and failure in life is something that almost everyone deals with whether they are willing to admit it or not.

Sometimes I feel like I have failed more often than not in the things that matter most in life – and most often it is at my own doing that it happens. For sure, when we try to do it on our own, getting things right can be pretty frustrating; even down right disappointing.

BUT there is good news! Overcoming frustration and failure does not have to be a life long struggle if you don’t want it to be. The good news is that if we are able to allow God enough place in our lives, enough say so in our decisions, and enough room to work on our behalf, we can experience GREAT success in life. I know, because when I have allowed Him to work in and through me, He has done great things. Believe in what God can do in and through you, and do not believe the lies that are so often heard and believed by those who end up failing in life.

In a world where competition can be overwhelming and opportunity for success illusive, it’s important to remember that GOD DOES have a good plan for your life if you are willing to put your trust and faith in Him and not man or your own abilities. Take a few moments today and talk to God. He might have something He wants to say to you if you take the time to listen.

Understanding Atheism and the Reasoning of an Atheist

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Understanding Atheism and the reasoning of an atheist can be maddening at times.  An atheist’s position is most often rooted deeply in a belief system that is unable to think that they should have to surrender to the will of someone else, mainly some ‘spiritual being’, i.e.  God.  Let’s face it.  At face value, Christianity is a way of life that rips the head off of pride and self-sufficiency, and says, “Die, so that Christ can live in you.” OUCH!  Talk about a wake up call for even some professing Christians.  No wonder some people find it an easier path to just say there is no god and that we came from primeval ooze billions of years ago.

We all know someone that says they are an atheist.  I have several long time friends who profess atheism as their belief system.  I even have a sister that is Buddhist that is an atheist – at least to the best of her understanding of what that means to her as a Buddhist.  Honestly, she (and those atheist friends that I talk with on ‘spiritual matters’ get confused and angry whenever we discuss the merits of our belief systems – in the case of my sister, mine being Judeo-Christian and hers being Buddhism.

Truth be told, every belief system has some sort of measure of faith that is required in order to believe in it.  Oftentimes, it is the only guiding force behind one’s belief.  In some minds, it does not matter what the truth is on the subject.  They just have the faith to believe what they believe and nothing more can be said about it to them.  If you are a Christian, and want to see progress made in sharing your faith with Atheists, my advice is to GET OUT OF THE WAY, and let G-d do it.

Remember that our warfare is not natural, but supernatural when it comes to soul winning.  Paul reminds us that “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12).  The battle against UNbelief in God is NOT won through argument or debate. It is won through love, compassion, AND the use of the Living Word of G-d.

When confronted with the antagonism of an Atheist, remember that while they have faith in their belief system, that it is rooted in a faith for what they have heard about Atheism.  Holy Scripture tell us that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).  The faith that Scripture speaks of is faith in God and in the need of a Savior.  If you want to be productive for the sake of the Kingdom, do not argue the merits of your faith with someone, but rather share the Word – as much of it as they can hear.  The Word is powerful.

In Hebrews 4:12 it says that the “word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” WOW!  That is powerful! Just think about it.  IF you are willing to share the Living Word of G-d with someone – let’s say an Atheist for example – it will go out of your mouth, into their ears and like a roman battle sword, go deeply into them.  Let’s face it.  It’s hard to battle the Living Word once it gets in you, even if you are a Christ follower! It will clean you up and set you straight! How much more will it have an affect on someone that does not have it in them.

All arguments aside about how to share your faith with an Atheist (or a non-believer in general), Jesus said that, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” (John 6:44).  This means that our job is simply to get the Word out there and in them, and then Holy Spirit will draw them.