Faith – Autosuggestion?
How about this version of faith?
“Faith is a state of mind that can be induced, or created by affirmation or repeated instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of self-management…your belief, or faith, is the element that determines the action of your subconscious mind. There is nothing that should not hinder your subconscious mind’s “sushievements”. “Miracles” occur only through the state of mind known as faith! ” Think and grow rich for coaches by Napoleon Hill and Will Craig.
If you don’t believe in God but still want his stuff, this is what you come up with. Does it not take the ignorant credulity with which Christians are often charged to think that Jesus calmed the sea, fed the multitudes, and raised Lazarus by autosuggestion? It takes even more blind belief to attempt our own great things by autosuggestion! Conceived! You can even tell lies to yourself, and if you generate enough autosuggestions, they will come true. Tell that to a person dying of cancer or a parent whose child just drowned in the backyard pool.
This is not Christian faith!
Yes, faith clings to what is still hoped for and clings to what is not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) But what is future or beyond sight is not conjured up in our minds; it is revealed by God who invites us to trust him. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he assured them that someone was there to listen. Thus begins the prayer, “Our Father.”
big mistake
Yeah, the last thing I did at work last Friday was make an entire showroom of kitchen and bathroom appliances disappear. That’s a “no no!” I pressed some buttons on my portable phone that wiped the data from the big Home Depot computer in the sky. So now prices can’t be determined or printed, catalogs can’t be published, and sales go unnoticed. I thought it was doing exactly what it was trained to do. To do? I did not have to wait long. I heard my name blare over the store’s PA system. He was the head of the kitchen and bathroom department. I thought you would congratulate me on a job well done. Instead? “Frank, what happened to all my appliances? You ‘didn’t-locate’ them. “You didn’t!” I said. (Denial always works, right?) I showed him the little scribbles on my phone that showed I’d done the job right. “There’s a problem with the system, I’m sure” (blame shift!). Well, long story. Do you think a little autosuggestion would have gotten me out of this hole? Management!Wrong again!
What I did
I told my head of department, a bit annoyed, that I was very sorry for what happened. Then “Can you show me how to fix it?” He replied: “It will be quite laborious!” That was on Friday. This morning, after having done my other chores, we find ourselves in front of a washing machine. He showed me step by step what to do. Feeling really bad, I commented, “You’re going to get tired of me this week.” “Absolutely not!” he assured me. “You are the man!” (Or something like that). For the next three hours I worked to correct my mistake. I will finish tomorrow.
Why have I told you this sordid story?
Well, it’s a parable of real faith as opposed to autosuggestion. True faith requires two people, the believer and the one believed in. I never would have known my mistake or had an opportunity to correct it if there hadn’t been a worthy department head to believe in. Aside from a department head, all I have left is autosuggestion. It’s easy to see that no matter how hard you work on it, you’d still be in a hole. So my faith in the head of the department was to finally admit to him that I had screwed up, eagerly soliciting his direction in fixing the problem, and then faithfully making the correction no matter how laborious. And faith came quite easily, because I like and respect this head of the department. He has been helpful before and cares about how well I do. We had a relationship.
And so it is with God
To have faith in God is to recognize him as worthy of our trust. He calls us out for the mistakes in our lives. Our first inclination is to deny or blame. But eventually we come to our senses and ask for his help. That is faith. How can anyone live without faith in a worthy God? I wonder if He is worthy? Do you need more proof than the cross of Jesus?
