How to Use Faith

Affirming Your Faith

"Kick instinct up a notch". Lead on to what you love, reveling in what you do, loving what you feel or hope to know. Get exquisite and elegant or complex thoughts in your mind, then challenge others in your quest, living positively, in what you hope may work (encouraging oneself). Do better comparably, overcoming fear [or hate] with greater-things than you can hope, according to the moment. Sky dive because of faith in a key human being, that special one who packed your parachute. Drive at highway speeds having implicit faith (some expectancy): drivers obey rules, maintain skill and alertness, and that everyone stay on their side of the line to remain alive. Eat confidently in faith at a restaurant believing in (relying on) the cook to not kill you, with faith that he or she keeps food pure, fresh and safe. Be rewarded at least as a first-rate achiever (or as "the one") by greater levels of this. Champion a cause, clap your hands, keep "rhythm" -- accept rules, respect a jury decision. Agree to compete or cooperate, have peace or strive and struggle together to have a home, school, team, amiable or hateful work place, follow a leader,...

Realize that faith in a "possible" present or foreseen outcome, beyond a routine and mundane stance as expected, is something worthwhile that a champion has in large measure. Champions may succeed by a firm belief and faith, in a greater possibility, through his or her belief and actions toward visualizing and following a goal, believing in and doing more in certain areas than most others do. Receive "champion caliber" insights, accepting your free gift of a greater vision of more, still, being possible, for some cause, or motive. This goes beyond merely discrete limits on actualizing hopes. It is in an area of verifiable events, but it is beyond limits of concepts seen in day by day routine. It's a feeling deep inside that gives people a sense of something greater than the mechanical logic. Let this blessing of happy fortune take root, as a seed and allow the roots of this gift to motivate you. If you're a non-believer (religiously), put your faith in your opportunity: that with cooperation, goodwill, and charity one can transcend hate and oppression in the world. Or, cultivate a faith in the arts, that literature, music, and creative expression can elevate you to a higher, better state of mind. Put your faith in the ability of empirical study, sciences or philosophy to answer meaningful questions you have about the existence of life, and of all things. Where do we come from? What does it mean to be alive? Look for these answers, having faith that you will find them. If you're a deeply spiritual or religious person, put your faith in a higher power and devote your life to worshiping/serving the god or God in whom you trust. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word. How will you know the truth? Use your faith in divine providence and the word to explain the world, and the Spirit to guide and comfort you. Find a community of like-minded believers who share your passion for the life, the truth, the hope, the way and love.

Have faith based upon knowledge through learning. Whatever your belief system and your faith, it's important to believe in and develop that faith as a life-long mission of learning. Commit to building your faith into a knowledge based belief system. Don't be an uninformed believer, as "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" speaks of the inestimable value of knowledge! If you have religious faith, commit to studying the core texts of your belief system. Being a Christmas-and-Easter Christian and tuning in occasionally to talk radio isn't enough to live a faithful life. Go to the religious text (such as The Bible or Koran) and learn the source of your religion. If you have faith in science, or other non-religious belief systems, practice healthy questioning (skepticism) and remain open-minded to alternative possibilities. Science based minds can be just as closed as other minds, if you're not receptive to the rights of other persons' to live by beliefs that you might call ungrounded.

Have faith to make progress. Believe in your ability to achieve what you want or need, to transcend your present condition and become the best possible version of yourself. Be as self-reliant as possible, as a capable person, supporting yourself in this world of can't. Use your faith to make connections, giving you the best chance for success and faith in something. Set goals. Make and, if necessary, remake yourself by reaching your goals. Having faith in some higher power doesn't exempt or excuse you from the concerns of the here and now. You aren't a leaf floating in the breezes of your belief, saying that "god will provide" when you're unemployed, and unconcerned with finding a job. Use your faith to support yourself, but never to excuse yourself from responsibility. Having faith in advancement of people and in finding essential good of humanity means you must contribute. You can't give back by watching a sad documentary and "feeling bad" about the situation in low income countries. Do something about it here and now.

Show faith in your family and loved ones. If you can't build trust within your family, then who can you trust? Surround yourself with people that you can trust, people that you can lean on in times of need -- and be the one that others lean on. A community of faithful believers is important, but a household of people who can rely upon each other is absolutely essential to creating and sharing "togetherness". If you feel like a black sheep in your family, or come from an non-supportive household, seek to rectify it -- or failing that, gain faithful community elsewhere. Consider spending more time at church, practicing and sharing your belief with others, or find a secular community to share in a common mission.

Use doubt to reaffirm your faith. No person of faith is without doubt. When Einstein first observed quantum entanglement–the observation that some particles were so deeply entwined that they would behave in identical patterns, regardless of how far apart they were separated–he called it "spooky action at a distance," and it shook his faith in God, in science, and in the way he understood the world. But the power of the paradox ended up strengthening his belief in both. What we can observe might be frightening to us, but we are confronted by our world, and our perceptions of reality, all the same whether we want them or not.

Sharing Your Faith

Find a community of like-minded believers. Faith is much easier to use in a group of believers who can help you hone your belief into a powerful fail-safe system. As steel sharpens steel, one person sharpens another. Find a local "faith-based" organization in your area, whether it be a church, a club, or some kind of other social group. Meet people with whom you can practice your faith. If you have trouble finding a community of interest in your area, consider reaching out to people on the Internet in your area of faithfulness. Faith-based blogs, message boards, YouTube groups, and other purposeful, online communities are extremely common and just as effective at forming a fellowship. You should never have to feel alone.

Make your home a faith-based household. If you've got children of your own, deciding how you'll raise them with faith can be a challenging proposition. Will you raise them in the way you were raised? Will you raise them with the same beliefs as you hold, or will you let them forge their own metal in various shapes? Creating an environment in which faith can grow is an important part of any household of faith. How you choose to do it will be entirely up to you, and your own belief system, but it's critical to make faith (not a faithless shadow of reality) a part of your reality and your family's life together. If you're religious, you might take your kids to church and raise them with your beliefs. Even if you're not so religious, yet non-judgmentally letting your children experience the world of a community of belief can be a powerful and moving experience for you and your kids. Let them see and appreciate how various people choose to express their faith and do forms of worship. If you're not religious, it's important to share your beliefs with your kids at an early age, but not to force them on your kids. Let your kids experience a wide range of different beliefs, faiths, and ways of interpreting the world. Let them find their own expressions of faith. As your children grow up, try to respect their own burgeoning belief system and their own faith in something. It might be different than your own, and even contentious, if you let it be so. If you're a committed atheist, what will you do, if your child wanted to be confirmed to the Catholic church? If you're a person of great faith in religion, what will you do if your child renounces your area of belief/faith or how it is expressed?

Encourage faithful friendships. Don't wonder (or struggle) alone. Form strong bonds and long-term relationships with people who share your quest/faith. Faith-based friendships and relationships will help you to grow in your faith together, learning and supporting each other by agreement. If you're dealing with doubt, spending time with friends who have settled such beliefs can help you channel that doubt into an iron-clad decision (a faithful life). Faith-based friendships don't need to revolve around only one thing. You don't have to be locked in constant science or theological conversation with buddies, and you don't have to be consistently debating with the other religious or science-minds. Every now and then, just go fishing.

Be generous. Open up the storage room of your faith for others to freely take -- or add. Faith works in mysterious ways in motivating events and people. You won't know unless you think and talk about (and get involved in such) stuff. While faith-centering can make some benevolent and good-hearted, it can make others condescending, limiting clear-minded discussion, presuming and acting preachy. If you believe that you've a lock on the one true way of understanding the world, it can make it hard to simply listen and share thoughts/beliefs with people of other ways of conceiving of faith. Try your best to share your concept of faith and represent its good news (gospel) accurately, being respectful of the others' freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Make an effort to spend quality time with people who believe and live-out very different things than you do. Join other kinds of organizations–local softball teams, bowling leagues, game nights, neighborhood organizations–and forge (reshape) good-faith relationships with people who may believe and behave differently than yourself. Memorizing inspirational quotations about faith and speaking in platitudes might sound good occasionally, but it also puts your faith on a restricted "diet of canned food". Faith is greater than the impressive quotes, bigger than soundbites. There's no fast-track to developing a deep faith in what you believe and living a faithful life. Be generous and humble with your faith, but don't show it off proudly, bragging and humbling others. Humble yourself, meekly but be firm and definite.

Consider volunteer or mission work. Whatever your beliefs, it's important to use your faith to give back, both to your own community and to communities in need of help. In religious communities, mission trips are often a part of youth groups and are a big part of some churches contribution to community service and organizing. During mission trips, groups of believers spread the word and usually do some kind of community-building activity, like volunteering as teachers, home or church builders, or doing other essential work. Secular non-profit organizations like Peace Corps, Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders are usually non-discriminatory and focused primarily on the humanitarian side of volunteer work, and less on the "spreading-the-word" side. If your big goal is to help, volunteering your time with a non-governmental non-profit can be a primary way to do it.

Finding Faith in Assembling Together

Consider exploring a variety of faiths and belief systems, if you wish. If you're grappling with change of (or to find) faith in something, or seeking to name and use a faith that you feel, but have trouble voicing -- it can be stimulating and uplifting to join a group or congregation in that arena. Acknowledging a higher power in an organized setting offers many people satisfaction, relief and strength. If you think you might be one of them, but weren't raised in a religious kind of faith, spending some time exploring different denominations and faiths, learning about their belief-systems and finding what speaks to you the most exercises your power of choice. If you were raised in a church, but are feeling dissatisfied, you might be in a crisis of faith. Do you use the doubt or question you're experiencing to reforge (with sparks flying) your beliefs? Or to find faith elsewhere? Each person will need to answer this question for oneself, but exploring other options is always a smart way to go about answering it. If you're unsatisfied in one congregation, try another. If your religion is giving you more questions and conceptual irritants than answers, start reading up on your or another way of believing. Have faith that you'll find (receive) the right answer.

Explore Buddhism. Buddhists have faith in the Noble Eightfold Path, which is a method of living in moderation as a way of ending human suffering by eliminating clinging desires. Faith in Buddhism derives from the pali word saddhā, which often refers to a sense of conviction. The saddhā is often described as "a conviction and determination to accomplish one's goals and cultivate a sense of joy". Learn more about Buddhism in the following articles: Become a Buddhist Say a Buddhist Prayer Practice Tibetan Buddhism

Explore Christianity. Christians believe in one God, who created the heavens and the Earth, and who became manifest on Earth as Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of Man. Christians believe that submitting to the will of God and placing faith in Christ is an essential part of saving your eternal soul from damnation. Christ told a parable about faith: "The one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." (Matthew 13:23) Learn more about Christianity in the following articles: Accept Christ As Your Savior Understand Messianic Prophecies Pray Effectively (Christianity) Make a Good Confession in the Catholic Church

Explore Islam. Muslims believe that there is one true god, named Allah, and that Mohammed was his prophet. Faith in Islam is called iman which involves submitting to Allah, obeying, believing, proclaiming, and doing deeds according to Allah's will. Believers make daily affirmations and prayers to restore this belief. Explore the following articles to learn more about Islam: Learn About Islam Find the Qibla for Prayer Give Up Sins (for Muslims)

Explore Judaism. Jews believe in the God of the Old Testament, called the Torah, where they recognize the value of faith and belief as seen in Abraham. Abraham believed messages from God that seemed impossible, but obeyed them without question. This unwavering sense of belief and faith in God is at the core of Judaism. Learn more about the Jewish religion in the following articles: Establish Productive Jewish and Christian Dialogue Convert to Judaism Celebrate Passover

Explore the universalist faith. Unitarian Universalism has no written creed to which you may adhere. Many Unitarian Universalists don't believe in any god, while many do. But because UU is such an accepting religion, they do not judge you on other beliefs. Many Unitarian Universalists celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, while others celebrate neither, allowing you to explore religion in an accepting and tolerant environment. Practice Unitarian Universalism Say a Unitarian Universalist Prayer