believe – Growing in Faith

Faith…Personal

“Faith is not a religion. Faith is relationships.”

I grew up in a faith based household and I was taught a monotheistic religion. I practiced that religion until I found something better, relationship. Relationship with the living God and relationships with people. There are over 4,000 religions in the world and they all claim to be correct. There are also subsets and different groups of those religions. I find that to be very confusing.

If I were searching for God, how can I find Him among 4000 religions? There isn’t enough time in ones life to do so. I had to simplify my spiritual life to relationships because following rules of religions is boring, predictable, and stagnant.

The faith that I grew up in was Christian…more specifically, Seventh-Day Adventist. I thought I was good as long as I followed all the rules. After going through a dark season in my life, I realized that relationships are superior to rules and when you foster healthy relationships, the rules are naturally followed.

I still believe in Jesus Christ and I still keep the 7th day holy. The difference is my motives for doing so. Under religion I did it because those were the rules. Now that I’m focused on relationships I naturally keep the rules because I love Jesus and I love people.

“Faith is not a religion. Faith is relationships.”

Faith…True Success

“If you can think it…you can do it.”

There are 3 definitions for success: 1. the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. 2. the attainment of popularity or profit. 3. a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity. To summarize, success is when you accomplish what you set out to do.

It sounds simple. I have a goal, dream, or vision and I accomplish the goal, make reality the dream, and manifest the vision. If it is so simple, then why aren’t more people successful? Why don’t more people attain greatness and reach their full potential?

That’s where faith comes in. Most people have goals, dreams and visions, yet, they do not believe they are capable of completing them. They become a self-fulfilled prophecy and their own worst enemy by their negative thinking: “I’m too young.” “I’m too old.” “I don’t have enough money.” “I have a scarred past.”

One of the differences between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people say, “I can.”, while unsuccessful people make excuses. What if Thomas Edison gave up on the light bulb? What if Harriet Tubman gave up on the idea of freedom? What if Steve Jobs gave up on his products? What if Martin Luther King, Jr. gave up on his dream?

There is greatness within all of us, that includes you. In order to tap into that greatness we need to stay connected to the One who created us. He wants you to be successful. Believe in Him and He will help you believe in you and will give you the tools you need to be successful.

“If you can think it…you can do it.”

Faith….Healthy Self-Talk

“Be careful what you believe about yourself, because you become what you believe about you.”

Faith. What is it? The merriam-webster.com dictionary has 3 definitions of faith. I will highlight two: Faith is a firm belief in something for which there is no proof; Faith is something that is believed, especially with strong conviction. We all have faith. We have faith that we will eat everyday, we have faith that the chairs we sit on will hold us up, we have faith that our cars will start, we have faith that we will wake up in the morning. Now that we have a better understanding of what faith is, lets briefly discuss how it relates to healthy self-talk.

We all believe a lot of things. We put our faith in football teams to win the game even if they’re currently losing. We believe our parents love us. We believe our spouses love us. We believe that we will do good in school, we believe that we will get paid for working on our jobs. We believe in ourselves…stop right there. Take a moment to think….Do I believe in myself? What am I telling myself daily? Does my self-talk look like this: “I am stupid.” “I can’t do it.” “I always make mistakes.” “I don’t look like him/her.” Or does it look like this: “I am intelligent.” “I can do anything.” “I fall, but I get up.” “I am happy being me.”

Our belief system, what we put our faith in, determines our self-talk, our self-talk determines our words/actions, our words/actions determine our habits, and our habits determine our character.

“Be careful what you believe about yourself, because you become what you believe about you.”