Cupboard Stocked with Faith

The third principle in getting through adversity is to use the power of faith to move forward toward your idea vision.

“Your mind is a cupboard,” the saying goes, “and you stock the shelves.”

Sometimes we don’t even know we are stocking our shelves; we just find things there.  What we see, hear, or participate in adds ‘food’ to our mental shelves.  Is the food on our shelves nourishing?

“The Assent of the Mind”

One powerful nourisher is faith.  What is faith?  Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines it as “the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence…”

This definition bears closer study.  So I invite you to study it.

You could focus on what the mind is assenting to—and define ‘What is truth?’ (But Pontius Pilate already chose this circular road one crucial Friday…)

Or you could focus on the last phrase and examine the shakiness of ‘without other evidence…’ (However, this phase is poorly worded as a plethora of general evidence abounds, giving you reference points to draw from.  For example the sun has risen for the last several centuries; it’s likely it will also tomorrow).

Or you could focus on who the mind is assenting to believe ‘resting on his authority and veracity…’ (Resting—such a peaceful word…reminds me of stillness, quietness, mildness…do these descriptors remind you of anyone?)

And what about the recognition of the heart and Spirit? Truth is not purely intellectual; for the intellect feeds on evidence-based knowledge, which is constantly being modified as our finite understanding gains new insights from new evidence.  Thus science books of 1900 are outdated while truth remains independent.

Faith as Power

Faith is motivating power—it instills positive belief in ourselves, others, God and circumstances.  

But the concept of faith seems rather ethereal and intangible…but then, to me… so is electricity.  And like electricity it is a great power source.  The trick is to discover, secure and use it.

Faith is a gift of God and works according to natural laws--we cannot manufacture it—though we can nourish, maintain and enlarge its influence and power in our lives.

“The problem of faith as of every gift of the Lord is twofold,” John A. Widtsoe says, “to secure it, and to use it. We speak easily of faith, but altogether too often fail to use it. We recall that it is knowledge, high knowledge, but forget that it is also power, mighty power, and therefore fail to use the greatest force placed within our reach in every issue of life.”

Alas, “Faith,” as Henry B. Eying reminds us, “has a short shelf-life…”

Faith is like Bread

Just like a loaf of bread, faith has to be used and replenished on a regular basis.  If neglected it will molder away.  When we go to our mental cupboard in time of need to get some of its power we will draw back in disgust at the hardened lump of…something.  Maybe once it was useful, powerful--a relevant, even needful part of our lives—but now?   

Mind cupboards, like physical cupboards, get cluttered with ‘stuff’ and need a spring cleaning once in a while. Faith cannot be stored like an emergency generator (in a dark corner of the basement to be used when a power line goes down).

Faith is the power line.  

So how do we connect to it?