Acting As If It Were True

One way that some people describe having faith in God is acting as if it were true. We believe in God, and, even though we can't be absolutely certain, we act as if it were true. The wonderful thing about exercising faith in this way is that faith is a principle of power, and acting as if it were true can actually make it so. Look at it this way. If we have faith that we can live on a nice, clean street, that doesn't have any litter or garbage, and then we act as if this were true - for example, first by refraining from throwing our own garbage out on the street, and then later by going out of our way to pick up all of the other garbage without being asked and expecting no kind of thanks or reward other than the prospect of living on a clean street - then the simple process of acting as if it were true that we lived on a clean street actually makes it true. Our own actions help to ensure that the street is free of garbage, but as we continue to take the time to clean up the street, we will actually have to work less and less, because others will see our faith and they will also begin to show their own faith and to act for themselves as if it were true that they lived on a clean street. It may seem hard to accept that we must live by faith and act as if it were true without any kind of assurance, but we must only do so at the beginning. Sooner or later, our faith will give way to knowledge and conviction, not necessarily because the Lord has seen our faith and has decided to magically zap us with certainty, but rather because the thing in which we believed and for which we have acted as if it were true will, through our faith and our actions, become true in reality. Look at how God operates. He said, Let there be light, and then in faith He acted as if there were light, and then there was light and He saw that it was good. If we want to believe that we can face life's challenges with patience, then we must first act as if we had patience, and eventually we truly will have patience. If we want to believe that our loved ones will follow our example, then we need to act as if they would follow our example, and eventually our faith will become a reality. I know that the more we commit to acting as if the thing we believe in were already true, the more quickly and completely will our faith bring our desires into being. There is power in our faith, and our faith will become a perfect knowledge as the world reshapes itself according to our faith.