And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief”
—Mark 9:24
There’s this story in the Bible.
It’s about a guy that has a sick kid. He goes to visit Jesus. Jesus tells him he needs faith. The man tells Jesus that he has faith but also asks if Jesus would help him have faith.
This guy wasn’t trying to pull the wool over Jesus’s eyes. Or play both sides. He was being real.
Could anyone blame him? Why should he believe in miracles? The reality of his world was one of pain and misery. His son was hurting and he felt helpless to do anything about it.
But he wasn’t completely helpless. In other words, he took what little action he could. He went to see Jesus. Because maybe the stories he had heard were true. Maybe it wasn’t fake news. Maybe this Jesus could actually heal his son.
There’s a miracle involved but besides that, it seems like something we deal with every day. It’s a story about faith.
But today I’m not going to talk about religious faith. I’ll leave that up to your priest.
No, I want to talk about a different kind of belief. Faith in YOURSELF.
Our lives are full of decisions. And every decision takes us down a unique road.
Our anxiety about the future is often due to trying to predict which road to walk down. The not knowing can drive us crazy.
“How will it turn out? Did I make the right decision?”
Doubt starts to creep in and makes the anxiety worse.
“Do I really have what it takes to finish college?”
“I’ve always been overweight. Can I really exercise daily and give up soda?”
“Will I ever start to relax and enjoy life?”
It seems life is what happens when we’re busy being anxious.
To stop doubt dead in it’s tracks….do this: Any time you hear that voice in your head telling you that you can’t do something, talk back to it.
In fact, don’t talk….SCREAM!
Tell it to shut up and get out of your way.
There’s enough hate and negativity in the world. You don’t need to add to it by being your own worst critic.
You see, thoughts are like puppies. They need to be fed. They grow up into big ol’ dogs.
Feed the dogs that you want running around your yard.
If you feed doubt and self loathing, then “them dogs gonna be big and wild”. They’ll never be satisfied. They’ll always be hungry. And they will run you ragged.
If you feed faith and kindness, then those dogs will serve you well. They’ll guard you while you sleep. They’ll keep intruders away. They’ll play fetch and wag their tails. They’ll fill your life with joy.
To believe in yourself is to accept that you are imperfect but that’s okay.
To believe in yourself is to embrace the way God made you.
To believe in yourself is to ignore the negativity around you.
To believe in yourself is to turn up the volume on the encouraging voices in your head.
To believe in yourself is to accept the future. Good or bad. And work through it.
To believe in yourself is to keep pushing forward even when things seem impossible.
Facts aren’t an illusion. But it’s your thoughts that carve out your reality.
Miracles aren’t the impossible happening. Miracles are what’s possible when you open up your mind and let yourself dream. When you let yourself hope. When you start to see that LIFE is the real miracle after all.
To achieve something great, make your faith greater than your doubt. And make your religion…LOVE.
And to do this, you might just have to pray…
for a little more faith….
And there’s nothin’ wrong with that.
There is faith all around us took me a long time to find it but I am there now. Faith in myself and Faith in God, Faith in all we do. Nice reading 👍