Stop Struggling

Faith is imparted. It is a gift of faith — God’s faith. If this great truth of God’s faith were taught to every little child of God, to all our dear people, how many struggles it would save them, how many heartaches, how many problems. If only they knew that what they have inside them never has to fluctuate because it is not theirs, it is God’s.

It meets every circumstance. It meets every trial. It meets every test. Because it is not our faith, it does not fail when the trial comes. Because it is not our faith, it can meet the sickness that tries to enter into our bodies. Because it is not our faith, it can encounter every trial, every circumstance, every problem, and can make us more than conquerors over every situation. Faith is not something you work up. It is not “psyching yourself out” or self-hypnosis. It is knowing what God knows.

I heard someone telling people in a prayer line, “Now, before you get to that man who is going to lay his hands on you, just keep saying over and over ‘I am healed, I am healed, I am healed.’ Then, when he lays his hands on you, you are going to be healed.”

We are not Christian Scientists. We are not trying to demonstrate mind over matter. Someone said, “If you go to the Word of God and memorize all the Scriptures of faith, that is how you will become a faith person.” We do not take anything away from reading the Bible or memorizing the Scriptures. You should hide God’s Word in your heart. This is of utmost importance — but the devil does not mind your memorizing all of the Scriptures in the world as long as the net result is that nothing happens.

You cannot get faith by struggling for it any more than you can get love by struggling for it. A person cannot say, “All right, I am going to go to the Scriptures to find all of the verses on love. I will say, ‘I love, I love, I love,’ then I will be loving.” This won’t work, because love is a gift of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:5).

Let that same thing apply to joy. Saying over and over, “I have joy, I have joy, I have joy” will not give you joy. You don’t struggle to create joy. It is God’s gift to you. The same thing is true of peace. Peace is a gift from God:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

You don’t struggle to create peace. You don’t struggle to create love, joy, or peace. Now, faith is also a gift of God: