Belief is Everything

My boyfriend, Aaron, and I had a conversation last night about God and faith that lasted about two and a half hours. That, in itself, says something about our relationship considering most couples our age can't even talk for two and a half minutes without making out. Weird.

He possesses a conviction that belief is everything. That things can be spoken into existence if spoken with faith in God and faith in the statement. It can, however, work the other way as well. If one holds a strong belief in something negative, he is essentially setting himself up for that belief to be true. For example, if a girl is always looking for the faults in others, she will ultimately end up seeing many of her own faults in addition to others'; or if she is always looking for faults in herself, she will find herself constantly looking for them in others.

This newly-understood fact that belief is everything caused me to look at my life in a different light. I realized that I search for the negative in situations, and so I search for such things in myself. I have always believed that closeness to God is based on time spent with Him, and so I feel distant from Him because significant amounts of alone time with Him haven't been made. My beliefs have, without my noticing, affected me in many negative ways.

This carries powerfully into relationships as well. Take Aaron and me, for example. For almost three years, we have believed in each other in incredible ways -- ways that, at the time, may not have even existed within us. I saw in him a very bright light as well as the most beautiful heart I have ever seen. Keep in mind, this was when we first met in high school. He was, at that time, a very very different person than what I first saw. But I believed in what God had shown me about him, and so I held on to it. Now, he is that same person who I first saw when we met. He is a speaker of life, a giver of love, a man with the heart of David. This isn't to say that it was because of my faith in him that he is the way he is today. That is all God's doing. But God does use other people's faith to work in powerful ways. Belief is everything.

And so, as I get ready to start my day with this new perspective, I'm reminded that it is not a waste of time to look for the best in people -- there is good in everyone. It is not wrong to have faith in the impossible -- nothing is impossible with God. And it is not impossible to love others just as God does -- Love Himself dwells within us.

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, 'May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it."