In her book Dare to Believe, May Roland tells us,“Your life is ruled and governed by a power that is within you. You exercise the right to use this power through your gift of faith.” And this gem: “Faith aroused glows and flames within you.”
Matthew 17:20 quotes Jesus as saying: “If you 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 will be impossible for you.”
Jesus is issuing us a challenge: If we have faith the size of a tiny seed which can grow into a huge tree, our word will be fulfilled. What’s more, with faith, nothing will be impossible for us. Frankly I don’t have faith in my ability to move physical mountains, but I have moved a few metaphorical mountains. And there are many cases where a parent has done physically impossible feats to save a child, such as lifting up a car. So it’s our use of Faith that determines what we can or can’t do.
The Gospel of Mark makes it clearer, Mark 11:23, “If you do not doubt in your heart, but believe what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.” Spoken words are thoughts given extra energy, a stronger vibration, so speaking adds power to what we are thinking. Affirmative prayer adds extra energy to it. What we are believing will come to pass in our lives, in our world, right now. Be careful what you believe, what you are saying, because the universe hears that as being what we want, and it will be done.
May Rowland writes of the role of Faith, “Any great work or achievement of ours is started in the quietness of our own being, when we let the inspiration of the Christ Spirit within us awaken, arouse and inspire us.”
May Rowland was Director of Silent Unity for many years last century, and is famous for the story of her faith turning away a tornado that was heading for Unity Village. She tells the story herself in this book Dare to Believe, how, as the tornado was nearly there, she spoke loudly to it, “Dissolve in the name of Jesus Christ!” and it changed direction and lost its power. This is such a great example of overcoming fear, the natural human response to a challenging situation. May Rowland CHOSE to use her power of Faith and spoke her words of prayer with conviction.
Think of a challenge you have faced, and the choice you had to make between fear and faith. What was the outcome? The choices we make determine our capacity for happiness. The challenge is to be happy regardless of what is happening around us. We will actually be in a better state of mind to deal with the outer situation when we are able to draw on our gift of faith.
Here’s what Robert Brumet said about fear and faith, “Fear is faith turned inside out. Fear is [putting our] faith in certain images created by the mind, rather than having faith in the creative mind itself.” When we find ourselves in challenging circumstances, we can choose to live in fear, or we can choose to call on our power of Faith. We can choose to stand firm in the conviction that there is good in the situation, and to see the good established.
Winner of the recent Wimbledon Tennis Women’s Singles Ashleigh Barty had suffered an acute hip injury which forced her to withdraw from the French Open. The doctor insisted she have a scan, but she didn’t want to see the picture as she didn’t want to carry that picture in her mind. She asked not to know the medical details, and how it wasn’t possible to heal in time for Wimbledon. Ash decided to go by how she felt.
After her win, she said, “Being able to play here at Wimbledon was nothing short of a miracle. Them not telling me that just proves how much we were against the odds and to be playing pain-free through this event was incredible. It’s funny, sometimes the stars align. You can think positively and you can plan and sometimes the stars align and you can chase after your dreams.”
Congratulations Ashleigh, what a great way to end NAIDOC week!
There is a new book out titled Minor Grievances, by a 30-something-year-old who points out that many things we complained about prior to COVID, now seem inconsequential. However, let’s not forget that there are life changes that are not inconsequential. Loss of a loved one, or other major life challenge, is a time when we do need to go through a grief process. It is not feasible to stay happy all the time. How long grief lasts is like asking how long is a piece of string – the important thing is that we do allow ourselves to grieve, to feel the sadness. Then we can move on to find what makes life worth living.
However we deal with grief, or setbacks, or loss of opportunity, such as we are facing now, we need to recognise that happiness is a choice. We can choose to see and expect outcomes based on fear – our fears or the fears of others – OR we can choose to turn to our Faith centre and let it be activated. With Faith we can claim Divine Ideas of Good, Divine Ideas of Life and Wholeness, Love and Loving Relationships, Wisdom and Understanding – and affirm that good is already established.
I will close with another passage from May Rowland from the chapter “The Flame of Faith” in her book Dare to Believe. Download it as a pdf below. I suggest you read the following in the first person.
“When you see by the light of faith, you become aware of the tremendous power that you can exercise. Faith aroused glows and flames within you. It releases healing, restorative forces within your body temple. It stirs the energies of your being and you become enthusiastic about living. Joy enters into your actions and you are happy and uplifted. You feel unbound and free and you enter upon a path of achievement. Nothing stands in your way; every phase of your life is brightened.”