God is always challenging us to deeper faith. One way to expand our faith is by a fairly simple exercise I call the “possible faith” exercise. It is simple but surprisingly effective. In addition to binding us closer to God in Christ, this exercise should help reduce anxiety and other distresses.
Possible Faith Exercise
- Recall something in your life that is distressing or causing anxiety or fear. If you can’t think of anything then you can just focus on the general state of your soul, or consider unbelief, pride, finances, relationships, loneliness, occupation, disappointments, personal tragedy, health, perfectionism, bad attitudes, bad habits, etc.
- Recall any promises from Scripture that might relate to your situation. These can be general or specific passages.
- Imagine having unqualified faith in God, especially full faith in his Scripture. Ask yourself “How would I feel, how would I think and what would I do if I had complete faith in God’s words?” Imagine what your inner life would be like. Consider how this feels. Imagine how this affects your thinking about your life and everything around you. Imagine how this affects your emotions and how you would deal with them. Imagine how this affects your decision-making and what you would let go of. Be aware of the sensations in your soul as you imagine this. Soak in it for a few minutes.
- Notice how your soul starts to rest. Be aware of any peace and freedom that you experience. Fear, pain and anxiety should fade some. Notice the difference between your soul in this state and the usual level of distress that you feel. The extra distress you normally feel is extra distress due to weak faith. It is the load that you unknowingly place upon yourself by not walking in the Spirit by faith. We can refer to this extra load as the “unbelief load”. We usually feel it in the form of anxiety. We all have an unbelief load and this exercise helps us to recognize it and get a feel for where faith can bring us.
- Now that you have felt your unbelief load, why not embrace possible faith now! The surprising thing is that you actually can suddenly start doing this to some extent. Once you imagine what it would be like, then choose to live that way. It will be like learning to ride a bike and you will fall off many times but you may be surprised at how your faith can grow. This faith will allow you to reduce your internal striving. The main “work” involved is choosing to die to your old thinking; to let go of your internal control over your world. With practice you will continually improve.
- Embracing possible faith is especially helpful in challenging situations. It is especially helpful when you sense anxiety. When you find yourself being tempted to think or act without faith in God, then ask yourself “What would I think or do if I had complete faith in God?” Once you know, do it. Your focus on God will usually provide a jolt of faith. Go the way of faith.
In this way we can banish much distress from our lives. Some distress is inevitable in this life regardless of how much faith you have. Jesus was distressed before the Cross. But there is much distress that can be defeated. Don’t be discouraged if you sometimes fail at embracing possible faith. Just keep coming back and doing the best you can. It takes time to establish a new habit.
That was interesting. It works.