Living with Heart: From Birth to Death 54 - The Twelve Movements - #4 A Man Grows in Faith
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A man grows in faith:
- He matures over a lifetime to live with a “heart” of certainty about God. He knows in his heart that God is always faithful to His promises and is always present in the man’s life
- He grows in his faith starting with fear, which God gave us to:
- recognize our need for help
- hope for an outcome that “saves” me
- speak our needs
- face our powerlessness over life
- express our hopes
By using fear as God intended it to be used (Episodes # 19 and Episode #20), we actually grow our faith, from an infancy to a maturity.
By using our fear to reach out to God with our feelings, needs, desire, longings and hope, we begin to develop a trust in God’s presence and action in our lives.
Fear can initiate this equation:
Fear Expresses Hope + Expression of Desire + Risk of Action = Outcomes that Develop Faith
A man needs to grow in:
- dependence upon God
- how God created us
- how one is uniquely created
As a man (or woman) practices the equation, he finds that “infant” faith grows. In other words, infant faith begins to become “memories” of God’s presence in his life.
Through practice over time, a man (or woman) develops a more mature faith that we can call “certainty.”
Infant faith is Hope + Expression of Desire + Risk of Action = Outcomes that Develop Faith.
Maturing faith is having memory of God’s presence in the past.
Mature faith is certainty of God’s presence even in the most difficult times.
When we feed the roots of the heart (feelings, needs, desire, longings, and hope), we grow the fruits of:
- living fully
- loving deeply
- leading well.
The roots of how God created us are expressed at birth. The APGAR (Episode #2 and Episode #3) speaks to how we come into life with rudimentary faith. We naturally reach for connection, safety, and fulfillment with a desire to grow.