Guest Author - Deanna Joseph
I used to believe that faith was what I had when I could trust in God and the Universe. But I thought it was something I had to work at. When life is difficult, faith is fragile.
“According to your faith be it done to you.” Matthew 9:29.
I’ve since come to understand that we have every bit of faith that we will ever need. We just need to figure out where we are placing our faith.
I once knew a woman who had a very bleak world view. She believed that given the opportunity, people would cheat her. If she had to drive somewhere, traffic would be terrible. If she had to go to the doctor, the diagnosis would be awful. And this is how things always seem to work out for her. She got what she expected every single time.
I have a friend who has a very positive world view. She believes that given the opportunity, people will always be helpful. If she has to go somewhere, she will always meet someone interesting, or have an interesting experience. If she has to go to the doctor, no matter what the diagnosis, she can be healed. She gets what she expects every single time.
According to our belief… it is done to us.
This is not a new concept. In fact, the whole law of attraction philosophy is based on how our entire belief system creates the world we live in.
Our world is filled with an infinite number of circumstances and events. It is our mindset that draws us to notice specific occurrences.
Have you ever been focused on a specific thing, and found that you seemed to notice it everywhere you went?
When we were house shopping, we would drive around for hours, keeping our eyes open for “For Sale” signs. I had never noticed so many houses for sale before! But that’s because I wasn’t paying attention before. When I had no interest I didn’t notice them. But even after we bought our home, I would still see “For Sale” signs everywhere I drove!
If we are feeling depressed, or have a negative mindset, our attention will be drawn to things that match our thoughts. We have tunnel vision and can only see the worst in every scenario!
If we are feeling positive and inspired, our attention will be drawn to those things. We will still have tunnel vision, but it will only include things that inspire us and help us to feel good.
Faith is really just our expectation of what is coming to us. We have faith that things will turn out for the best… or we have faith that life will toss us about like boat on a stormy sea.
When I find myself needing to change where I’m placing my faith, I think of this Eric Butterworth quote.
“Anything God has done, God can do.” Eric Butterworth
If it’s been done… it can be done. We are not the only ones experiencing our particular circumstance – somewhere out there is someone who has accomplished what we want to accomplish; healed what we want to heal; received what we want to receive. This means that it is possible for us too.
The dictionary defines faith as complete trust and a firm belief in something in which there is no proof.
We may believe that it can be challenging for us to have faith in something we cannot see or touch. But we are already doing that, every day. Are we having faith things will work out for us? Or are we having faith that things will fall apart? It doesn’t take anymore energy to have faith in things that will bring us peace and happiness, than things that will bring us misery and destruction. It only takes a change of focus and intention. It only takes a change of heart.
Where is your faith?
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1.
