Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Faith is More than Belief

I have lots of wishes.  I wish it were warm and sunny.  I wish I were rich.  I wish I had a fast car to drive instead of a big fifteen passenger van…sigh.  Faith is more than wishing.  

The first way to harness the power of faith is to imagine the possibilities.  The possibilities are endless.  Without imagination, it is hard, but not impossible to have faith.  But don’t stay in imaginary-land.

Next set actionable goals.  Faith is a principle of forward movement.  One-week-goals can be just as powerful as ten-year-goals.  In fact you need both.  In order to be rich, I can’t sit on my butt and wait for money to grow on trees.  There are a lot of intermediate steps to take.  One time I was tasked to set some goals and I came up with a long and beautiful list.  However, when I looked it over after it was submitted, I realized that they were all things that I had right now or could achieve tomorrow.  That is an example of what not to do.  Don’t be afraid to want good things.  I reworked my goals to include things I had never tried to do before.  Write out your goals in the present tense as if you are doing them right now.

Third, I have to keep track of myself.  If my goal is to develop spirituality, I might set a goal to read the scriptures daily.  In order to know if I am reaching my goal, and not being too lenient with myself, I need to make a chart for checking off my progress or I need to journal what I’m learning.  Journals help us to record and remember positive steps we are taking on the journey.

Last, I must return to the original vision and report on my progress.  How close to my original intent has my journey taken me?  Have I arrived, or do I still have a ways to go?  What obstacles did I encounter and what can I do to avoid them the next time?  Faith will get me where I need to go if I don’t try to run faster than I have strength.


If you liked this post you might also like:  Faith is the Conviction that Moves Us

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