Faith In Our Lives Is Very Important
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” ~ Hebrews 11:1
You may be accustomed to mental health blogs, but today let's take a close look at the spiritual side of things...
When you have a general faith in God, it may seem easy to just go about your life with no real worries, but it is so very important to learn to build a faith that helps you truly tackle the challenges in your daily life instead of being defeated or discouraged by them.
The Bible calls us to trust and believe God will take care of every step and detail of our lives. God doesn’t want us to rely on him just for the sake of it but because he knows what’s best for us and wants to refresh and relieve us. When we understand the importance of faith in everyday life, we will be able not only to survive but grow and succeed. The Bible also says that we shouldn’t worry about our everyday life. Studies show that the top reason for stress in our lives are the common things we face daily, such as our jobs, health, finances, and relationships.
We experience a ton of emotions on a daily basis. Some are positive, like happiness, love, and gratitude, while others are negative such as fear, anxiety, and disappointment. We need God’s help to fight the temptation to let our human emotions take control.
We are human, but we don’t fight like humans. The weapons we use in our fight are not made by humans. They are powerful weapons from God. With them we destroy people’s defenses or arguments that oppose the knowledge of God.
We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.
With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16
2 Corinthians 10 tells us that spiritual weapons can overpower human defenses. These can come in the form of pride, intellectual arguments, and emotional defenses. We need God’s weapons to "take every thought captive".
Ephesians 6 tells us that one of these many weapons that God provides for us is a "shield of faith.”
If you have the ability to imagine the worst possible outcome for any situation, you are using your energy to prepare for the worst. This “human way” of fighting can be exhausting because all of your mental and emotional energy is reacting to every situation that comes your way and trying to take control. You are literally always on defense.
This is because you have no shield of faith, so all of the “flaming arrows” are hitting you!
To have this shield of faith and follow God over your emotions, you will need to decide to study and obey the scriptures (Romans 10:17) actively. This means not just simply reading or agreeing with the Bible but finding and holding onto scriptures that help you focus on God and fight on the offensive rather than the defensive. Building daily faith starts with daily choices to trust God. It is a daily decision to choose to follow God and live by faith rather than giving into fear and letting fear and stress consume and dictate how I live.
When you are feeling anxious about something, you have several choices...
Will you choose to pray until God becomes bigger than your fears, or will you cut your prayers short in order to try to anxiously work harder about what is giving you stress?
Will you choose to study your Bible deeply to find scriptures that show you God’s perspective, or will you indulge in and let the voices of fear and anxiety win?
Will you reach out to a friend for help and perspective, guidance, or support with your faith, or will you stay in your own head feeling anxious and fearful trying to just get by?
Learning to live by faith in your everyday life starts with understanding the source of your fears. It seems very simple and yet extremely difficult at the same time.
To learn to trust God, we first need to identify what we put our trust in instead.
Here are four common things we can put our trust in over God that we must stop doing:
Our ability: What we are able to accomplish ourselves physically.
Control: Being able to control the outcome of something we actually do not have control over
Logic/ Facts: Human reasoning or what seems humanly possible based on our own facts or what we see.
How others view us: Our confidence and security are based on our interactions (good or bad) with our peers and whether we fit in with them.
As long as you are putting your trust in someone or something other than God, fear and anxiety will continue to dominate your thoughts.
Trust God daily and focus your efforts on things that build your faith in God daily.
*Read Psalms 91:2
For more help in this area or other areas that may be hindering your relationship with God, reach out to us at lifehackswithnancy@gmail.com
