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TEEN SOUL POWER
The Power of Faith
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Do you have faith in the government? How about faith in the Supreme Court? Do you have faith in your teachers, your parents or family? How about Faith in God?
To be honest, true faith, blind faith, has no definition. But Faith is more than just an attitude. More than a belief. Faith is so much more than a doctrine, or theory, or scientific explanation. Faith is a heartfelt conviction. Faith is complete trust and/or loyalty in someone or something. Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, and has a loyalty and fidelity to that person or thing. But with spirituality, Faith is having a complete belief in something not seen. Faith is having a heartfelt conviction of God, and here is the qualifier - without proof. For Faith, there is no "proof" per se. And it is having loyalty and fidelity, and acting to a particular set of religious beliefs or church teachings - in a manner based not upon empirical data or scientific proof - but by a spiritual connection of the heart and through a divine relationship of the soul. Although different religions have different traditions and practices, virtually all have as a common core element faith with believing, hoping and trusting in God as a Supreme, Divine Spirit over all the universe. |
Quotes About Faith
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"In my deepest, darkest moments, what really got me through was a prayer. Sometimes my prayer was 'Help me.' Sometimes a prayer was 'Thank you.' What I've discovered is that intimate connection and communication with my creator will always get me through because I know my support, my help, is just a prayer away."
-- Iyanla Vanzant "Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." --- Mother Teresa "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe." --- Saint Augustine "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible." ---Thomas Aquinas "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." --- Saint Augustine "All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired." --- Martin Luther "He who trusts himself is lost. He who trusts God can do all things." --- Alphonsus Liguori "Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe." --- Voltaire "Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof." --- Khalil Gibran "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times." --- Martin Luther "Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair." ---William Shakespeare "We are never defeated unless we give up on God." --Ronald Reagan "You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense." --- Rick Warren "Ask those who love Him with a sincere love, and they will tell you that they find no greater or prompter relief amid the troubles of their life than in loving conversation with their Divine Friend." --- Alphonsus Liguori "Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God." --- Blaise Pascal "The more a person loves God, the more reason he has to hope in Him. This hope produces in the Saints an unutterable peace, which they preserve even in adversity, because as they love God, and know how beautiful He is to those who love Him, they place all their confidence and find all their repose in Him alone." --- Alphonsus Liguori |
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It is Faith that gives meaning and purpose to life, especially during dark or difficult times. Spiritual health involves the capacity for unconditional faith. As such it also means love, compassion, forgiveness, altruism, joy, and fulfillment. It is an antidote to cynicism, anger, fear, anxiety, self-absorption, and pessimism.
It is the inner joy and fulfillment with your mission from God and your divinely inspired purpose on earth, that really gives one an inner sense of peace and tranquility. It is not happiness from having the newest car or more millions in the bank. It is a level of self-respect granted from being consistent with your conscience - a rightly formed conscience, and your reason or purpose for life. This, then, is what grants us true happiness, yet, it is the most common denominator lacking in many families and in most dysfunctional families. |
Evidence of the Positives of Faith:
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Religious people live longer and healthier lives than their non-religious counterparts, according to studies released by a major University Medical Center. They also found that religious people spend less time in the hospital, are healthier, recover faster and avoid depression or recover quickly. Being a person of faith makes people more optimistic about life. Research also shows that people of faith are less likely to use addictive substances, and one book demonstrated that people who attend church weekly have about one-third the rate of alcohol abuse and are about one-third as likely to smoke as those who seldom participate in congregational worship. This was especially important for religious youth who showed significantly lower levels of drug and alcohol abuse, premature sexual involvement, and criminal delinquency than their nonreligious peers.
The laws of the church, faith, actually has health benefits the study said. Numerous studies have demonstrated empirically that those with faith fare far better in areas of health, emotional stability, family happiness,—even income, than those without. The studies were not dependent upon which denomination of religion one practiced, but rather the degree to which one lived and practiced within their faith. The studies have consistently demonstrated a higher quality of life from many vantages: better health, better recovery from disease and illness, having more satisfaction at work, having a better marriage, having healthier children, and several studies even point to those with strong religious beliefs having more opportunities for promotions and higher salaries. The most well known of these research studies on faith were “blind” studies of people prayed for at cardiac units of hospitals. Those units which had patients that were prayed for, showed fewer cases of mortality, less morbidity, faster recovery rates, and fewer complications and relapses than those in the other units. Faith works both for the individual that has it, as well as for others throughout society. It is Faith that gives meaning and purpose to life, especially during difficult times. Spiritual health involves the capacity for unconditional faith. As such it also means love, compassion, forgiveness, altruism, joy, and fulfillment. It is an antidote to cynicism, anger, fear, anxiety, self-absorption, and pessimism. It is the inner joy and fulfillment with your mission from God and your divinely inspired purpose on earth, that really gives one an inner sense of peace and tranquility. It is not happiness from having the newest car or more millions in the bank. It is a level of self-respect granted from being consistent with your conscience - a rightly formed conscience, and your reason or purpose for life. This, then, is what grants us true happiness, yet, it is the most common denominator lacking in many families and in most dysfunctional families. |
But Can Faith Move Mountains ?
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Jesus once said that faith can move mountains. “…. for I say verily unto you, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye should say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and he should remove: Neither should any thing be impossible for you to do. But this kind (demons), goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:20.)
So according to the bible, faith with prayer and fasting can work miracles, but can faith even move mountains? Here is an interesting story from an Egyptian Christian. The story is allegedly true. One day religious Jews, Muslims and a minority of Christians talked about a plot of land near a mountain that got in the way of their living. The Muslims had heard that in the New Testament Jesus promised to Christians who “have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing can be impossible for you.” “If they can’t move a mountain,” the Muslims said, then “Christianity is false,.” The Muslims thought this was a golden opportunity to hold a crucial issue against the Christians, either to move the end of that mountain, which congested the land, or else!!! They therefore threatened the Bishop either to move the mountain or concede it could not be done, in which case the Christians must convert to Islam, the only true faith (they claimed). Otherwise they would put all Christians to the sword. The bishop was in distress, and asked for a three days’ grace, which he spent praying and fasting. During the fast he beheld a vision, assuring him and strengthening his faith, and that he would receive further instruction to work the miracle. The Bishop together with the Christian community, although a minority of the population, held a fast. The Christians, so the story goes, assembled on one side of the mountain and the Muslims and Jews on the other. The Christians prayed fervently and the bishop waved his staff, and as they prayed the earth shook with a powerful earthquake which toppled the hill. There was panic: buildings could be seen falling and some of the Muslims and Jews even begged the bishop to put a stop to the tremor. When calm had returned the Mountain was nowhere to be found. |
Jesus said to him,
"Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed:
but blessed are they who have not seen and have believed.
-- John 20:29
"Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed:
but blessed are they who have not seen and have believed.
-- John 20:29
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Faith can and does work miracles. Read, pray, talk with others, believe, fast, and once transformed you will see everything differently, as if filters were taken off your eyes. One’s gift of discernment is sharpened. Time and again, Jesus performed miracles and informed His disciples that they could do the same, simply through faith, through prayer, and through fasting. “Woman, you have great faith, and your faith has healed you.” But he also chastised others, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Jesus did say that “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,” and that we would all have sufferings and tribulations to face while on earth, but as long as we have faith our fears, worries and nightmares will fade away and there will always be hope, courage, strength, and the joy of communion with others who also know and understand. It has even been said that “Through prayer and fasting wars can be averted, and the course of nature can be changed” (at Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina.) Can you imagine the good we can do if each and everyone of us had a weapon that was so incredibly powerful enough to actually stop wars or neutralize a hurricane or tornado? How many lives could we save? How many children? How many homes? How many families would still be together today…enjoying their children…laughing and playing rather than weeping and angry? How many people would turn from their self-destructive ways, if the rest of us had faith, prayed and fasted for them? Faith, through prayer and fasting can work miracles, and the size of the miracle or need does not matter to God. If one has faith in God, one experiences more joy and satisfaction, and more gratitude. With faith, your problems and burdens are lightened. With faith, one experiences more opportunities in life, with faith answers and solutions come easier, and with faith people experience more miracles in their lives. With faith, one has more understanding of the real reason and purpose of life, and more appreciation of the sanctity and divinity of life itself. Today, we need a Spiritual Awakening more than ever. But today we also face many obstacles that erode and weakens our faith…. The new age movement, modernism, the belief in science over God, legalism, etc. Have Faith…faith in your family, faith in yourself, but most importantly—have faith in God and live that faith. Choose the right path, you will know what to do. And remember: Your life is God’s gift to you, what you do with your life is your gift to God. |
The One Phrase that Everyone will one-day Want to Hear:
“Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
