Faith is the standard operating procedure of human life. God has made it an integral part of human existence, so that anyone in the world can achieve his vision and experience growth with all its benefits and blessings. Put your trust in God always and enjoy unshakable confidence in Him. With faith, it is possible to live our lives intelligently.
Faith is a state of mind that leads you to believe in yourself. Lack of faith often leads to fear, doubt, unbelief, anxiety, depression, lack of confidence and unproductiveness.
Let me share with you the story of one of the world’s best motivational speakers, who happens to be my online mentor. His name is Lewis Brown. He was born in Miami, Florida, in an abandoned building, on a hard linoleum floor with his twin brother. They were both adopted six weeks after their birth. When he was in the 5th grade, he was labelled as “educable mentally retarded” and stayed in this category until he got out of high school.
Lewis, however, met a high school teacher that changed his life. One day, the teacher said to him, “Young man, go to the board and write what I am about to tell you”. He said, “I can’t do it sir.” The teacher said, “Why not?” and he replied, “Because I’m educable mentally retarded”. The teacher came from behind the desk and he looked at him and he said, “Don’t ever say that again, someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.”
That was the intervention that changed his life. And for the first time in a long time, he was able to have faith in himself and that was the beginning of a new dawn in Lewis’ life.
The first step towards greatness is to have faith in God and in yourself. Faith is helpful in overcoming fear, just as the above story has highlighted. Faith is complete confidence in something, which is not subject to logical or experimental proof. Faith is the acceptance of an established criterion as a basis of reality.
Have you ever seen God? No, but you have faith in Him. You must have full faith in yourself, in order to fulfil your destiny. Faith enables you to overcome your weaknesses, American writer and well-known author, Christian Bovee, remarked, “They are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers.”
Put your fortune in good hands, your own hands. Whether you think you can or think you cannot, you are right. Have a living faith in the power God has deposited in you.
Faith embodies more than belief. Faith elevates one’s being, while belief is limited to a mental state or emotion; but they both work pari passu. Since faith implies a trusting reliance upon future events or outcome, it is synonymous with belief. You must have faith in a brighter and rewarding future.
Faith is also different from hope. Hope is maybe, faith is must be. Hope is good, faith is better. Faith is having deep conviction in your heart that you can accomplish any goal you set for yourself.
Belief is the brother of faith. Belief is the simplest form of mental representation and one of the building blocks of conscious thought. Below are tips on how to believe in yourself:
Learn how to make decisions based on your experience.
Set realisable goals for yourself.
Recognise when you achieve your goals, so that you will build your confidence.
When you fail, find out the reasons you did.
Use realistic expectations to judge your success.
Listen to critics, but never let them convince you that you are less than you are.
Give your time and energy to others, it really helps in developing yourself.
Don’t give up on your dreams, goals or aspirations, for you never know how right they truly are until you put them into action.
Believe in yourself, you will do your best.
ACTION PLAN: Study biographies of great people and learn how they were able to achieve great feats with the power of faith. Use the power of affirmation, based on the principle of repetition and emotion to develop your belief system. Be faithful with your faith.
AFFIRMATION: I can do anything I set my mind on. I am blessed and highly favoured.
Sesan Kareem helps leaders and business entities to imbibe the belief system and motivation to grow, thrive and excel in our ever-changing world.
