Fear Faith & Failure

The greatest mistake we can make, is to give way to our fear. Fear will prevent us from taking the next step, whatever it may be. Fear will make us distrust ourselves, and others. When fear is entertained in any form in our mind, it's only a matter of time before we're filled with doubts, sorrow, or anxiety. Any trying situation we are ever faced with in our life, is there for us to learn from. Any grief or difficulty we must face, means the time has come for us to climb another rung on the spiritual latter. If we give way to our fear, and tell ourselves we can't triumph over a situation, then there we will remain until we change our mind. There is an old saying: "We must live with what we can't rise above," and so it is with change and enlightenment.

So called problems in our life can be stumbling blocks, or stepping stones, the choice is really ours to make, rising above a situation to a greater enlightenment may take time and effort, hell it may even be hard! The pain we experience in these times is nothing more than our resistance to make, or face, the changes that need to take place, so that greater enlightenment can be had. So how does one gain the strength needed to face the changes that need to take place, so that greater enlightenment can be had? All you really need to do is ask God for the strength. In the Bible (Matthew 21:18 - 21:22) Jesus basically says, If you have faith, and no doubt, if you truly believe when you pray, that what you pray for, you will receive, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. In other words the check is in the mail. If you can believe in the depths of your heart that God has already gone into action to provide whatever you've asked for, even though you can't see the results yet, your prayer will be answered. This is faith, and it's faith in action.

An important thing to remember is, we plant, God grows. It's like when you plant a seed in the ground, can you will it to grow, can you be the earth, the sun, and the water the seed needs to become a living plant? Can you be the life force that will engulf the seed, and give it life? I doubt it, but God can be and is, all of these things. The same holds true in our life, we put forth the effort, but God handles the results. Now many people confuse faith with hope. Hope is useless, uncertain, weak, and fruitless, at best. Faith is knowledge, a knowledge that God cannot and will not fail us. When faced with a problem, if we truly believe God's power is greater than the world's power, even if our mind is trying to fill us with doubts, this again is faith, faith in action. The important thing to remember is not to give consent to the doubts the mind introduces. In other words don't give power to the doubt. Don't say "Yes I believe in you." Instead say "No none for me thanks." One of the greatest pictures of God's power over the world is painted in the Resurrection. The Crucifixion is the ultimate example of all the World's fear, hate and distrust, unchecked and unchained. The Resurrection is proof of God's power over the world. The Resurrection should instill faith in all of us, that no matter what problem the world may present to us, God can and will help us conquer it, as long as we have faith, or in other words posses the knowledge, that with God all things are possible. So what if we put faith in God and we still seem to fail? Well . . . let's talk about failure. What is it, and does it really exists? The world certainly believes it does! The world believes in failed relationships, failed marriages, friendships, and business adventures. The world believes in failed opportunities, and dreams. The list could go on and on. Actually we can eliminate so called failure from our lives by changing our perception of failure.

How many times in your life, did you have things you were willing to call failure, turn out to be for the better a ways down the road, when more had been reviled? Sometimes there are things we need to let go of because they're holding us back from greater enlightenment. Once we've become willing to let them go, or even sometimes the universe strips us of them, we seemed to have failed, only to find later, that it was for the best and we were really victorious. I remember one Saturday afternoon I was in a coffee shop with a very good friend of mine. She was telling me about a dream she had she didn't quite understand. She said she saw an ominous black knight on a vicious angry black horse, with his lance extended toward the ground, and they were held motionless by a beautiful red rose that was at the end of the lance. I felt my whole body surge with joy on what a beautiful picture this was, the power of love over fear, the power of God over the world, the power of faith over failure. Failure rides on the horse of fear, but both are stopped dead in their tracks, when faced with the love of God.

© Lester F. Schone, Jr 1999

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