Chapter 3
Faith, Hope, Enthusiasm and Trust
What is FAITH? The word “FAITH” is an acronym for “Full Assurance In The Heart”. It is a belief, an assurance and the acceptance of a truth—the truth that a Power exists; A Power called God. Once you believe that the power exists, your subconscious and conscious mind opens up to the possibilities of this belief and you begin to see its advantages and the insights it brings. It then gradually becomes your philosophy, your choice and the very foundation of your life.
What does faith do? Faith makes you believe; it makes you trust and gives you total assurance in the heart. Therefore, faith makes you surrender; it helps you to let go and accept the divine will. Faith helps you live with peace and tranquility. It brings positive energy and all the positive emotions like courage, confidence, compassion and optimism that come with it. Faith reassures us that God is in charge and makes us realize that God exists. Faith gives us the courage and confidence to Believe and this makes our life truly successful and full of Joy, Bliss, Contentment and Fulfillment.
When we wake up in the morning, we don’t go and check if the sun has risen. We know the sun will rise every morning; we don’t doubt it- That is FAITH!
Faith creates hope. It makes you believe in a Power that made this Universe; a Power that made you and me. Faith generates strong
positive emotions such as Hope that multiply the belief that faith initiates. While faith makes us believe and gives us the assurance that God exists, hope gives us the expectation that we will be able to feel and experience the power of God.
Faith initiates the discovery of experiencing God, but it is hope that energizes it. Together, faith and hope create an environment wherein we can firmly believe in God. They generate a power, a spirit and an energy that brings us closer to the Power we call God. The word “HOPE” is the acronym for “Having Only Positive Expectations”. To Hope is to believe that whatever has to happen will happen for the best. Hope generates positive emotions like optimism. When we live without hope we become hopeless because we are unable to expect positive results under any circumstance.
Hope is the key to experience God. God cannot be seen; God needs to be felt, believed and experienced - the only way to do so is through hope. If one believes that God does not exist, then one can never experience that Power called God. When we have positive expectations and believe that there is a power that created this Earth we shall experience God.
“I believe in this power and I know that this power will take care of me. I completely trust this power and depend on this power.”
When you live with these thoughts, your life will be transformed.
A true believer has positive expectations and has the hope that one day he will experience God. Whereas a nonbeliever does not even accept the existence of God, and thus he will never believe that he will connect with God. A believer believes, hopes and experiences just as a nonbeliever does not believe, is hopeless and never experiences. Therefore, to truly experience God we must choose hope. We must only have positive expectations; which means that we must completely eliminate negative expectations. We must not let negative thoughts take charge of our life because the minute that happens, it completely destroys our life and eliminates the possibility of believing, accepting and experiencing God.
Hope allows us to perceive what we cannot otherwise see but does not rule out the possibility of thinking logically about the Power called God. Hope eliminates doubt and generates enthusiasm. “ENTHUSIASM” comes from the Greek words “en” meaning “in” and “theos” meaning “God” or in other words, “Belief in God”. Those who live with faith and hope develop a spirit of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is inspiration. It is a Power within oneself, generated from the belief in God. Together, faith and hope build enthusiasm and an enthusiastic person believes and lives in the name of God. What does Enthusiasm do? Enthusiasm creates a situation where we believe in God, trust in God, live in God, have faith in God and have hope in God. Enthusiasm makes us completely trust. It makes us feel powerful, happy, confident and courageous; leading us to truly experience God. How can we experience God if we don’t believe in God and if we don’t trust in God?
Enthusiasm strengthens our faith and reinforces our hope; building more courage, confidence and positive energy. This in turn creat