Having Faith
by Raymond Warren Bennett on 08/14/12If someone were to ask me for my definition of the word faith, I would reply, "Faith is believing in something you can not see, but you know in your heart to be true". We exercise our faith on so many levels throughout each day, often without consciously realizing it. We have faith as we venture out into traffic, seldom giving thought that we could be involved in an accident. We have faith that we will avoid getting sick even when a person openly sneezes or coughs in our face. We have faith that our homes will not suffer serious damage during the worst of storms. And we have faith that our loved ones, or ourselves for that matter, will never experience financial misfortune.
Let's face it, there are those times when we take our faith for granted, and there are those times when our faith becomes the very anchor that stabilizes our existence. Faith is a daily necessity for it is the most important part of our lives. Without it, we could not pray. Without it, we could never connect with God, praise Him, thank Him, beseech Him, or truly recognize His love and receive His many blessings. Truth is, real faith is a gift that we all posses, a characteristic of our divine heredity, but this gift can only be nurtured and strengthened through our prayer and devotion to God - - our great benefactor.
Having enduring faith in God, our heavenly Father, has always been the cornerstone of every religion. Perhaps you remember reading the Lord's Seventh Message revealed by the Blessed Mother in The Spiritual Knowledge. "I want to tell you of the secret of religion. No matter where anyone has lived in the world at any particular point in time, no matter what their culture has been or religions traditions practiced, no matter what people around the world have called their supreme beings or pictured them to look like . . . the truth has alway been that mankind has continually been praying to the same, God our heavenly Father."
From the inception of this writing, I have been setting the stage to share with you what I believe to be a beautiful example of one man's faith and his willingness to be open minded regarding God and religion. Several weeks ago I was approached by this very same person who stated he had listened to me on the radio and had become intrigued with the Lord's Seventh Message. For you to better understand this, I must tell you that this man was born and raised in India and worships within the Hinduism religion.
At one point during our thought provoking conversation, my new contemplative friend stated, "I have been seriously thinking about what you had said on the radio. If everyone, throughout time, has been praying to the same God, then my God is really your God . . . and your God is truly my God. If your God had a mother who is referred to as the Blessed Mother . . . then my God had the very same mother, for our God is one in the same. Believing in my heart that this is true, I see there is no reason for me not to believe in the Blessed Mother's existence or the fact that the Lord gifted Her with many heavenly blessings . . . the same blessed gifts She utilizes when helping those who believe in Her and pray to Her. You may be pleased to know I have already begun to pray to Her." I replied, "I am pleased to know that, but better yet, I imagine She is extremely pleased to know that also."
