Living By Faith

Faith is a two way street

 

Many of us proclaim to have Faith.  We have faith in God, faith in other people, and faith in our belief system.  But how often do we actually live by that faith?  For me personally, this has been one of the biggest obstacles of my life.  I have faith that God works for other people.  I have faith that my prayers will be answered for them.  But I often struggle with accepting that my prayers will be answered. 

 

It is not that I don’t believe that God can move mountains.  It is that the emotional scars that I carry from my past get in my way.  When we are damaged from our past, we carry these emotions with us.  They affect how we live. They affect our faith.  These emotions make us struggle.  And they make us have doubts and fears.  They make it hard to live by faith.

 

I am genuinely happy for someone else when they have blessings and answered prayers.  Yet sometimes I was envious.  I felt like I was doing something wrong, or that my faith was not strong enough.  The truth is, I was looking at God with lack.  I was looking at someone else’s answered prayer with the mindset that there was not enough for me to be blessed too.  I was blocking my ability to receive because I had the attitude that there is a limited number of blessings.  I was limiting my own faith. 

 

One of the things that I have learned about myself is that I must be a good receiver.  We have to be open to receiving blessings just as much as when we watch someone else receive them.  Honestly, it can still be hard.  It is like having an unused muscle that needs to be exercised.  My faith has to be exercised.   I have to have the same expectations for myself that those prayers will be answered.  I must have the same faith that I have for other people.  I don’t have a problem praying for someone else with the certainty that the prayer for them will be answered.  Now, I need to allow that faith to carry over to me.

 

I truly believe that God wants the best for us.  He does not look at one person with favoritism over the other.  If he allows for one, he allows for all.  We just need to learn that we are worthy enough to receive what he has in store for us.  What we see other people receiving, we are also able to receive.  Part of having faith in God is understanding that faith is a two-way street.  It is about believing for the best for others, but also believing for the best for ourselves as well.  Faith is a walk. It is a journey.  It is a path that we venture down when we have a relationship with God.  We need to learn to walk by our faith, and live by it as well.