By Books Author Denise Turney

If navigating this world was only easy. What a wonder it would be if life in this world was always smooth, never bumpy, not once requiring unshakable faith. Actually, when you’re a kid, life can feel like a cool ride if your parents are loving, responsible and have strong child development skills. Then, years pass, and you get what you’ve been begging for. You get to grow up and become an adult. That’s when you need faith for overcoming tough times.

Set Yourself Up for a Good Life

Brace yourself, my friend. You may have just entered the space where you’ll have the types of experiences that grow into the case for faith. As you prepare to navigate these experiences, make smart decisions. A doctor once told me that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. For example, give yourself a solid chance to live in peace by choosing zero to low student loan debt. Also, get a wealth of experiences beneath your feet before you decide to marry or become a parent.

Travel. Explore. Live carefree and unhinged.

And pursue what calls your heart. For instance, if you’re passionate about painting, busy yourself working with a myriad of colors, inks and canvases. Love writing? Start penning your best novel. Don’t worry. You may have lots of time to get better as a writer, sharing remarkable stories with the world.

Overcoming Tough Times

My prayer is that you never have a hiccup along the way. But the world being what it is, that may be unlikely. In fact, if yours was a challenging or abusive childhood, you’ve already hit bumps, maybe even faced your share of mountains. One more setback, and you could consider tossing in the towel. Or you might ponder simply surviving, just getting from one day to the next.

Yet, if there’s a bit of kick in you, this choice could turn into regret. That’s why you’re encouraged to exercise faith. After all, overcoming tough times calls for fearless faith. To stir up your faith while overcoming tough times, remember why you started on your life’s path. Remember why you started painting. Or remember why you went into ministry, sales, medicine, science or education.

As hard as it may seem, see yourself doing what you love. Also, see yourself enjoying, actually enjoying, being successful while you’re doing what you love. Keep at it. You’ll see that ongoing life success really is the case for faith. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 shares that, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (New International Version)

About Loving Life

You may have also seen this shared as, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (New King James Version). Beyond Bible study on faith, there are the words and experiences of motivational speakers and instructors.

Motivational speakers and instructors teach that inner vision produces what we see out in the world. When experiences that you want keep showing up in your outer world, this is easy to digest. In fact, you might celebrate these seemingly “easy” successes.

During these times, blessed faith doesn’t seem necessary. But, this is when seeming ease could make a future challenge that much harder. If you don’t practice daily awareness, you could start to believe that your successes are magical events. You could miss the link between your thoughts, beliefs and faith and what you see in your outer world.

Faith Building Tips

Then, when hard times show up, you may feel incapable of facing them. Therefore, to strengthen your thoughts into fearless faith while overcoming tough times:

• See yourself living a rewarding life, enjoying your passions. Do this every day.
• Practice awareness. Pay attention to your thought world and notice the link between your inner thoughts and the images your thoughts show you in the seemingly “outer” world.
• Surround yourself with people who are living the life that you’re passionate about. Watching others achieve their goals, especially goals similar to yours, can pump up your unshakable faith.
• Watch programs that support your passions, programs that strengthen fearless faith in you.
• Listen to deep meditation tapes that inspire, motivate and encourage faith love hope.
• Recognize inner guidance when it surfaces. And follow guidance from your Higher Self.

Also, take action that leads you closer to your goals. If you get into the habit of taking wise daily action, you can gain a momentum that could propel you through unimaginably tough times. This has happened to me at least twice. And, when I say unimaginably tough times, I’m talking gut wrenching struggles.

Strengthened Faith for Overcoming Tough Times

Here are more ways to strengthen fearless faith while overcoming tough times. Remember, it’s this type of faith that may become blessed faith, a belief in good that doesn’t call for years of struggle and suffering:

• Each day, engage in at least three activities that you enjoy. For example, you could take a scented bubble bath every night, sip on your favorite herbal tea in the morning and take a relaxing midday walk.
• Love reading books? Curl up with your favorite books two to three nights a week. Not only will you be entertained, but books that you read may offer insight into your current struggles. Additionally, books that you read, including fiction, might hold an answer to a question you’ve been pondering.
• Dance in the morning, if only for 30 to 60 seconds. Do this even if you’re struggling to find a reason to get out of bed.
• Spend time with loving family and friends. For instance, you could commit to visiting and calling family and friends once a week. Keep this commitment to avoid isolating yourself and feeling like it’s you against the entire world.
• Continue to build good, loving relationships. Little beats good, trustworthy, loving friends when it comes to overcoming tough times.
• Be patient with yourself. Even if you’ve lived with fearless faith before, it can take weeks, months or years to reach a blessed faith state. Once in a blessed faith state, trusting the Creator to help you see while in the light may become natural.

Getting to a Good Life

In other words, take care of yourself. Be kind to yourself. It may not be what you want to hear. But, you may have lots of chances to practice fearless faith. That’s another reason why it’s wise to start paying attention to the link between your inner thoughts (inner images) and the external thoughts (outer images that you see in the world). Also, take full responsibility for your life. This can help you to feel empowered, even if you’re facing hard experiences.

One last tip. Read stories of people who faced and overcame seemingly impossible challenges. Stay motivated, encouraged and inspired. See yourself enjoying what you want to experience. In fact, see and feel it as if it’s happening right now. Despite how hard things may appear, see yourself enjoying a good life. Practice fearless faith until you achieve a blessed faith state.