Lorraine: Jesus, what should people do when they’ve lost faith?
Jesus: Before I can answer that question, I must first define the word faith. Faith means different things to different people. Not everyone believes in God or me. So faith will mean one thing to believers, and something completely different from non-believers. There’s also faith in oneself and mankind, which is different still. So let’s start by defining faith.
Faith is a strong belief in something unknown, something that is not tangible, and something that cannot be understood. Let’s say you believe in money. Most people do. It’s tangible. There is no need to have faith in it because you understand what having it can do for you. And you understand the repercussions of not having it. For those people who believe in God, their belief requires faith. God is not tangible, and he is incomprehensible. Nobody can fully understand God. He exists only in the hearts and minds of the people who believe in him. God exists on a different plane than you and is an unknown. It takes a strong conviction to believe in God. The same is true for me. I was once a tangible person. People believed in me because they had tangible proof of what I could do. Their belief turned into faith, however, when I died, and they could no longer see me perform the miracles that I still perform today.
Having faith in oneself, or in another, is also not a tangible thing, and it is difficult to achieve. What you will do beyond this moment is an unknown. What you are doing right now is the only thing you, or anyone else, know about you. What you have done in the past may be documented and well-known. It may determine your credibility and give insight as to what you may do in the future. But it does not determine what you will do, nor does it determine who you are. The only thing that determines that is what you are doing right now. To believe in what you will do, what you will achieve, who you will become, and what you will do for someone else, requires faith – faith in yourself, faith in others, and their faith in you.
With that being said, the lesson I can give to everyone is that faith is an inner resolve, it goes beyond belief. It requires extraordinary belief in something because you never really know if that thing you believe so strongly in really does exist, or will come to fruition. Having an inner resolve about something is propelling. It can move mountains. It can achieve the impossible. When you have faith in something, nothing other than what you have faith in is possible – at least that is so in the mind. Sometimes, when you set out to achieve something, and you have faith in yourself that you will succeed, sometimes you don’t. And that is when more faith and resolve are required to keep going until you overcome whatever it is that stopped you from achieving success.
Faith is an incredible thing. And sometimes people lose faith. They lose faith in love, in their fellow man, in themselves, and even in God. That is when a new faith is required. Sometimes you have to find a renewed faith through a different set of circumstances. When you lose faith, it can have many different side effects. You can become depressed, angry, frustrated, hurt, and you can even withdraw from the very thing you lost faith in. You can withdraw from society, and you can even withdraw from life.
It is disheartening to lose faith, but it does happen to just about everyone at some point and time in their lives. If you’ve lost faith in your spouse, your marriage, your friend, your business, your God, step back, take a breather, meditate, and examine what it was that caused you to lose faith. Was it your expectations? Was it that you were lied to, cheated on, stolen from? Examining the thing that caused you to lose faith – even if you have lost faith in yourself – can help you rediscover a renewed faith. Or it can help you establish a new faith in something related or unrelated to the thing you lost faith in.
Faith is important and should not be dismissed as something that only religious people have. Far from it. Faith helps you to succeed. It helps you win battles, overcome illness, and achieve the impossible. Faith aligns the stars, puts things in your favor, and can change the course of things to come. Without it, you are nowhere. You go wherever life leads you, and it will often lead you astray. Life is what you make it, and if you have faith along the way, you may stumble and fall, but ultimately you will succeed.
So when you do lose faith. Just stop, think, meditate, ask questions, and process it until you realize that it wasn’t your faith that was wrong, but the circumstances that caused your faith to weaken. Change the circumstances, try again, and renew your faith, and keep it up until the thing you have faith in, shines through.
No matter what, always have faith in yourself first, because, without you, God can’t shine through you.
Peace
