You have to work at faith. The apostle Paul said, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Faith is a journey to be taken, a narrow path to be followed, and a trail to be blazed. The faith journey involves working out our relationship with God who is deep within us, beyond our comprehension, and also revealed in all things. It is not so much a process of thought and intellect, or even belief, as it is a process of trusting and growing, of learning to risk leaving comfortable and familiar ways of being and doing (and even thinking) that may inhibit our growth.

            You have to let go to find faith. Jesus said, "Come to me all you that labor and are heavy leaden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11: 2)." Faith is choosing to live in a way that releases control of the future and of the past, and fully inhabits the present moment. Faith is choosing to live in a way that releases destructive identity markers such as bitterness or envy, pride or self-pity, fear or resentment-those things that keep us from being who we are-that hide the Holy from our sight. Faith is letting go the need to be right.

            When I need to be right and, therefore, you must be wrong

                        I'm opposed to you, unless you agree with me completely

                        That's how I'm right

            But if you must be wrong for me to be right

                        I've lost myself in you

                        I've given my power to you

            If my power rests in you

                        When I must be right and you wrong

                        To preserve my own worth

            What if I'm proven wrong?

                        Then my value is diminished

                        Either way, right or wrong, I've lost control of

                        My own sense of worth

            But what if I give up my need to be right

                        And my need for you to be wrong

                        Then we can just be

                        You'll be you and I'll be me

            And the power returns to our own center

                        And we both find God there

                        Waiting for us

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.  

--Jack F. Price

To read more by Jack, be sure to order your copy of Finding Faith: Honest Answers about God, the Bible, and the Church Today at:  www.findingfaithnow.com or www.lulu.com/buy (download available)

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