Rick Warren's Blog, page 530

A Secret Faith Is a Shallow Faith

Go public with your goals in life! Announce your intention, the change you want to make in your life, what you���re asking God to do. Clarify what you really want, and then state it publicly. You need to tell everybody, because a secret faith is a shallow faith.

Choose Faith Over Fear

If you���re going to make a fresh start with faith in your life, you have to face your fears. Don���t let them control you! Fear has an incredible ability to paralyze our potential, to keep us from launching out, to keep us from having faith in our lives.

Let God Tell You What to Give

When you become a person of faith, you learn to give according to what God tells you to give. Don���t let anyone pressure you or manipulate you or ���guilt��� you into giving. At the same time, don���t limit what you give by deciding, ���This is what I think I can reasonably give.��� That kind of giving doesn���t require any faith.

Faith Is Thanking God in Advance

Faith is not believing God can do something. Faith is not hoping he will do something. Faith is thanking God in advance.

Tell It Like It Could Be

There is enormous power in your words. If you���re going to become a person of faith, you have to change the way you talk. You have to announce it in order to experience it.

Develop the Habits That Produce Godliness

Sometimes I don���t feel like being nice to everyone. I don���t feel like doing the unselfish thing. I want to just lie on the couch and watch TV. I don���t want to do one more thing today. I don���t want to handle another problem. But just because I don���t feel like it doesn���t mean I shouldn���t do it.

Choose to Trust God in 2018

Every time God tells you to do something, it���s a test of your faith. The question is this: Do you trust God, or do you trust your gut? Do you trust the Word, or do you trust the world?

You Have to Believe It Before You Can See It

Faith is visualizing the future. It���s believing before you see it. Hebrews 11:1 says, ���Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see��� (NLT). How will you see 2018 through eyes of faith?

God Is Always on Time

In the waiting room of life, you can choose to trust God instead of panicking. You also need to remember two things: One, God is never in a hurry. And two, God is never late. God���s timing is always perfect.

Waiting Is Essential to Your Faith

When you���re waiting on God, remember that you���re in good company. Billions of saints before you have sat in God���s waiting room. You���re not alone. In fact, if you���re in the waiting room right now ��� maybe you���re waiting on a job, on an answer, or on a prayer ��� there are a lot of other people around you who are in that same situation.