Faith is the Starting Point - Final
“Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.”–Pearl S. Buck
Tips on how to strengthen your faith and put it into action
Be willing to take steps, especially if they stretch your faith.
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Manifest your faith by taking initiative, by thinking outside of the box and breaking out of your mold or comfort zone.
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Let your mind stretch. Your faith is almost always limited by your mind and what you are willing to accept as possible. Push the barriers back. Explore the uncharted seas.
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Settle on a plan to put your faith into action, even if it’s a plan that you know will stretch you, or that you may not feel fully ready for. Tossing around a variety of ideas is a good first step, but there comes a point where you have to look at the valid ones and select your course of action. Once you have your course of action, determine a first step. So many good ideas go nowhere because the first step isn’t taken.
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Be willing to do the hard work that comes with putting your faith into action. Faith is the underlying belief that a plan is workable and achievable. But any worthwhile venture requires elbow grease, slogging it out at times, and perseverance to see it through, and sometimes even to simply get it off the ground.
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Invest time in proving your faith once you know something is God’s will. Don’t fizzle out at the first sign of difficulty. Don’t give up too soon. Faith takes the challenges, both expected and unexpected, as they come, and tackles them. It doesn’t just will them away; it devises a plan for the solution and then puts it into effect.
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Faith requires a will to work. Faith doesn’t lazily wait for a bolt of lightning from the sky before acting. The “bolt” may be on its way, but faith won’t be idle during that time; faith will be hard at work, both trusting the Lord and also actively doing what you can.
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Expect some setbacks, but don’t let them hold you back. Learn to work around, over, under, or even through them if need be. Setbacks often bring to light elements that were not fully accounted for in your initial plan, and as a result they can help your plan to be more successful in the long run. Faith will give you the right outlook on setbacks and help you take advantage of them as stepping stones to success.
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Celebrate the victories along the way, even the little ones. Even celebrate the unexpected problems you had to resolve that then resulted in victory.
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Ask for prayer from others if you feel your faith is under attack.
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Be faithful to spend time in God’s Word, which helps to strengthen your faith and increase your vision.
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Listen to faith-building stories and testimonies from others. Be around people with faith.
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(Jesus:) Faith is at its finest when it’s been through the wringer and still comes out with a grin. That’s the sign of durable faith. Do your part to strengthen your faith and nourish it through your times with Me and My Word.
Faith has a work element to it as well. Faith is what transfers something from a nice thought to a world-changing action. There’s nothing laid back about having faith; you need to be willing to get off your rump, roll up your sleeves, and work hard.
Your work for Me is a work of My Spirit, but it’s equally a work in the physical realm. Faith is what will take you from a mere plan to reality. Faith is not complete without action; it’s a package deal.
Faith will rock your world, because not only will you hope for great things, you will set about to take action by faith. Faith will be the substance of the things you hope for and the evidence of them even while they are yet unseen.3
3 Hebrews 11:1.
Anchor TFI