Monday, February 5, 2007

Today Matters, Decision #8: FAITH

8. Decision #8: FAITH: “Today’s faith gives me peace”
Deepen and live out my faith daily.

Benefits of faith:
1. Gives me a divine perspective today. Philip Yancey : “Faith is trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
2. Gives me health today. Faith adds meaning, perspective, positive social networks that benefit my physical and emotional health.
3. Gives me strength today. Faith helps overcome adversity. “Faith draws the poison from every grief, takes the sting from every loss, quenches the fire of every loss. Faith gives a person power.”

Important things to consider:
1. We already have faith. The important thing to consider is where we place it. “You go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce who gives you a prescription you cannot read that you take to a pharmacist you have never seen, and yet you take it.”
2. Your goal should be to align your beliefs with the truth. Seek the truth and you will find it.
3. A faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted. Viktor Frankl: “A weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes, whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them.”

How to live out the disciplines of faith: “Every day I will seek to live and lead like Jesus.”
1. Embrace the value of faith.
2. Put God in the picture. Let God into your life. “Unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God, while faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”
3. Explore and deepen your faith. D.L. Moody: Faith did not seem to come when I kept praying for it. When I began to study the Bible, my faith has grown and increased.

Story of Rick Husband, Shuttle pilot who died in when the Columbia burned up on reentry. Wife was able to face the grief because of her faith and the support of the faith fo the other widows. Proverbs 3:5-6.

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