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I fast from doubt.

Consider the poignant plea in Mark 9:24: “I believe; help my unbelief!”  What if we were able to see doubt as part of the process of faith, not the opposite of faith? How might this change our approach to doubt?

It is often easier to brush aside doubts and simply declare our faith. Yet there are gifts—nuggets of truth and freedom—to be found in doubt.

In fasting from doubt I can notice and honor my thoughts and feelings and ask myself: What is this about? What I gain from my inquiry into my doubt is infinitely stronger than any blind faith. Whenever doubt weighs me down, I can lovingly and gently go deeper with my doubt.

Is my doubt rooted in fear? Perhaps it is a sense of unworthiness or lack? Maybe a past experience is coloring my perception and causing me to question. I’m not giving in to doubt or turning away from it, but gently excavating to find and release its roots within me. The way out of doubt is through.  I fast from doubt and inquire within: What do I know to be true?

Once you become aware of your limiting beliefs, you can begin to eradicate them by denying they have lasting, enduring truth.  This action robs the limiting belief of its power and cleanses it from your mind. With the limiting belief no longer in mind, it’s time to feast on affirmations.

I feast on faith.

When I feast on faith, my mind turns to these beautiful words by James Dillet Freeman in Angels Sing in Me (Unity Books, 2004):

Faith is not so much a matter of the mind as of the heart. Sometimes in seeking to understand God as a principle, we lose sight of God as a presence … To have faith is not to theorize about God or even to imagine God, but to experience God …  Faith is a warmth, a feeling of well-being that envelops the body and overflows the mind. Faith brings an inward peace, a tranquil spirit.

Faith is the expectation of the unexpected. Faith is an open and courageous heart …  Faith is the power to see in the disappointment of today the fulfillment of tomorrow, in the end of old hopes the beginning of new life.  Faith is the inward power to see beyond the outward all is right when everything looks wrong …  Sometimes you may have more faith than you can imagine, and when you need it, you will find it there within you.

I feast on faith. In the face of doubt, fear, or disappointment, I feast on faith. I open my heart to an experience of presence and inward power and knowing that sustains and energizes my very being. I feast on faith.

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