FAITH

Matthew 9:27-30
27   And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying,
and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us.
28   And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and
Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said
unto him, Yea, Lord.
29   Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it
unto you.
30   And their eyes were opened;

Today I want to talk to you about FAITH. It is such a small word but
holds great powers.

I looked up the word Faith, on the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary and
one of the meanings was -- having a firm belief in something for which
there is no proof.

I thought, out of all the meanings listed, this one had the best meaning
for the purposes of this article. Because so many of us have a hard time
believing in something for which there is no proof.

The lack of faith in yourself is what’s stopping you from living the
life God intended you to live. You might not want to hear it, but I’m
gonna keep it real, someone has to say it—the bottom line is you don’t
have enough faith in yourself.

I know that you love to sing, or write, design clothes, have a passion
for dancing, like to motivate or mentor others, or you have a great idea
that you believe will be of great service to others. But you don’t
pursue it because there is not enough proof that you are good at it. Or
there isn’t enough proof that you will succeed. You might believe that
you are good at it, but you don’t have any faith that others will think
you are good at it.

Let’s say, for instance, that you love to sing. However, the only place
that you will sing is in the shower. You believe you have a nice voice,
but you are afraid to sing in front of others because there isn’t any
proof that others will think you have a nice voice as well. So, you
spend the rest of your life working as a cashier for Wal-Mart, barely
making ends meet, while you have a million dollar voice that you were
blessed with that rivals Whitney Houston’s.

Or, you have always had a talent for designing clothes. You doodle all
types of fashion designs on paper as they pop into your head. When you
were younger you dreamed of going to The Fashion Institute, but things
didn’t work out that way for you. So now you work at the local gas
station as you watch people like Jay-Z, a rapper, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs,
Eminem, another rapper, Enyce and Russell Simmon’s Phat Farms make
millions of dollars each year. And all you do is Player Hate from the
gas station, saying to whoever will listen, “what could they possibly
know about fashion?” You keep “hating” on them but the truth of the
matter is you didn’t have enough faith in yourself to follow your
dreams. They did.

Did you know the three guys from FUBU started their business selling
FUBU T-shirts to street vendors? Then they approached a famous rapper
from their neighborhood, whom they didn’t personally know before they
approached him, to wear and promote their fashions. That famous rapper
was LL Cool J who helped launch FUBU into the multi-million dollar
company it is today.

The difference between you and the three FUBU guys is they had faith in
themselves. They believed that they could put their fashions on the map
and were willing to do all that they could do to make that happen.

The main killer of FAITH is FEAR. Fear is what is holding you back from
being that successful, talented person whom God made you to be. Fear is
what is stopping you from living the life you were meant to live.

The reason you allow fear to hold you back is because you don’t have
enough faith.

In the Bible verse that is listed above, Matthew 9:27-30, Jesus asked
the blind men if they believed that he was able to make them see and
they both said yes. Then, Jesus said according to your faith be it unto
you.

See, Jesus had the ability to heal them, BUT ONLY IF THEY BELIEVED AND
HAD FAITH. He has the ability to help you, too, BUT ONLY IF YOU BELIEVE
AND HAVE FAITH.

Jesus said to those guys, “according to your faith, be it unto you.” He
is saying the same thing to you. According to your faith, be it unto
you.

If you do not have faith in yourself, you will spend the rest of your
life living in a state that is not productive, not conducive to the life
you were meant to live. Instead of singing in front of millions of
people and sharing your gift that God has given to you with the world,
you will forever sing in the shower as you get ready for your job at the
local factory.

According to your faith, be it unto you. BELIEVE and have FAITH that you
are a SINGER and that God has given you a gift that he wants you to
share with the world.

ACTION POINT: Start out small to find a little proof that you can do
what it is you want to do, so that you can start developing strength in
your faith. Since I’ve been using the example of singing, I will
continue (but, of course, you can replace singing with whatever it is
that is your talent or passion). Start getting proof that you can sing.
Sing in front of one person, then two. Then branch out and find
somewhere you will be able to sing in front of 10 people, then 20, then
50, then 100 until you have enough faith in yourself to believe that you
are a singer. Start telling yourself, “I am a world-famous singer.”
Start visualizing yourself as a singer. Start believing and having
faith; just like the blind men whose eyes were opened because of their
faith. You, too, can have everything you desire out of life if you start
learning how to have faith.

Dawn Fields is a motivational speaker, author and coach. She has an amazing way of reaching you with her down-to-earth style and her ability to make the impossible seem possible. Sign up for her FREE weekly newsletter by sending a blank email to mailto:yourlifespurpose-subscribe@topica.com.