'You Gotta' Have Faith' - Thanks George Michael!

This is my comment on another site's discussion page ...Thought it would work here.

YES! Faith can be a living challenge. When the darkest of days appear and you feel all alone. When the creditors pound the phone and the mailbox is crammed full of bills. When your house is in foreclosure and your line of credit was cancelled and this is your only child's first year in college. Faith is a challenge then; or is it?

Only through these experiences are we able to see the faithfulness of the Universe, that all is well in spite of appearances. The old saying, 'never judge a book by it's cover' holds true here, for it is not the seen but the unseen that determines the outcome of our present moment. I choose the unseen, the Unknown force within to change the outer circumstances.

With every experience we choose to judge by appearances or go within for the answers. Confidence to walk by faith only comes from choosing to go within and receiving the 'coincidences' which are the answers. After many experiences you begin to trust and faith is no longer an issue. A Master said after He told a follower to put his hand in His hand and in His side - the follower said then that he believed - Jesus said, "Blessed are those who haven't seen, yet believed." Faith leads to belief - it is the first step of a lonely path you must bravely walk all by yourself. Then belief leads to confident assurance. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

When you've traveled both difficult paths, you come to understand, while the first step of faith is terrifying, this path is by far easier than the road I was on before.