8 steps to Faith Practice

It’s not how others see you, but how YOU see YOURSELF’.

After a long time when I met this friend, she told me about the two consecutive project failures, she faced in her organization, “this has broken me down not only financially but also morally. I have a terrible disbelief in myself” she said dejectedly. “I have no confidence. I just don’t believe I can put it over” she lamented. The blows of life, the unpredictable crisis, the multiplication of problems tend to sap energy and leave one broken and discouraged. But the one, who stands through it, gets through it! And standing through it requires great courage and faith.  “There are two steps that you should follow to come out of this” I suggested.  “The first is to identify the actual cause of failure and not the perceived cause. Post that,  practice on faith building.”

But what is faith building? Faith building is based upon spiritual techniques where the focus is regaining the lost confidence and faith to work upon your potential powers.  By practicing Faith Building, you can modify or change the circumstances which you are now facing, assuming control over them rather than continuing to be directed by them. A famous psychiatrist has rightly said that: ‘Attitudes are more important than facts.’ Any fact facing us, however difficult and hopeless is not as important as our attitude towards fact.

 We build up a feeling of security or insecurity by how we think. A negative pattern of thoughts will get you a pure negative outcome whereas a positive pattern of thinking with a mental picture of success in mind will get you the desired result. The secret cure to insecurity, lack of confidence, and fear is to fill your mind with thoughts of faith, confidence and security.

So following are the simple, practical principles that can be adopted for overcoming the failing attitude and learning to practice faith:

1.      Develop a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture firmly and never let it blur. Do not underestimate or doubt the power of mental picture, for the mind always tries to complete what it pictures. So always picture success.

2.      Whenever a negative thought, regarding your personal skills come to mind, terminate it by voicing positive thoughts.

3.      While on your way of progress, do not build up obstacles in imagination. Study the problems and complications in detail, but do not exaggerate them or inflate them by fear.

4.      Do not be influenced by others and develop inferiority complex. You are equally efficient as they are.  Also consider that most people despite their confident appearance are often as scared and doubtful of themselves as you are.

5.      Repeat this magic mantra 10 times a day: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans viii, 3I).

6.      Analyze yourself in terms of your personal powers: skills, abilities and talent and work to improve on them on a daily basis.

7.      Practice and repeat this affirmation 10 times a day, and you will never see an obstacle big enough to cease you from success; “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me” (Phillipians iv. I3)

8.      Remind yourself that GOD is with you and nothing can defeat you. Believe that you now receive power from him.

I myself have implemented these principles, and found them to be very effective in developing confidence and faith. So don’t just read through, breathe through!

The above article is inspired from The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale