Have you ever been discouraged before? 

I have! I remember there being a time when I was super discouraged about walking in purpose and listen, we ALL have those moments! But I asked God why I wasn’t seeing results? I had plenty of ideas. Getting ideas was never the issue. I was always dreaming and imagining the possibilities life could bring. 

I didn’t even have an issue with getting started. I could figure out what I wanted to do (write a Bible study, host an online event, start a community group, read 5 books in a month, etc.) and then backtrack each step to actually accomplish the goal I set. 

But this wasn’t my problem. My issue was actually finishing.

And it’s something I started to see in every area of my life. I would start a project. I would have a lot of excitement about it only to find myself two weeks later with no motivation to finish.

Ever been here before? 

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

There’s a term for this and it’s called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. In layman’s terms, it’s a type of cognitive bias where you overestimate the ability you have. You basically think you’re smarter than you really are, and this leads to feelings of overconfidence. 

But as you grow in knowledge, skill, wisdom, and experience, you become more confident and self-aware of the abilities that you have to complete certain tasks or projects. Most people never get to this point though because they get so discouraged by their lack of skill that they give up. Psychologists literally call this point the valley of despair.

And boyyyy, was I despaired lol. Over time, I started to get really frustrated because this seemed unlike my character. So I started to ask myself questions.

Were my goals unrealistic? 
Was I doing something that I wasn’t supposed to be doing? 
Why wasn’t I able to finish what I started? 
Was I out of God’s timing?

It wasn’t until I started praying that God started to reveal my issue. 

Side-note: this is why asking yourself self-reflecting questions and spending time with God is so important. Sometimes, we get so busy that we never pause to reflect or take an assessment of what’s really going on inside of us.

For me, it wasn’t that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do. It was the fact that I didn’t have enough faith to finish what God put in me to start. I hadn’t been listening to anything lately or regularly to help maintain my faith.

What is Faith? 

If the concept of faith is new to you, faith is one of the building blocks of the Christian life. When I was younger, I’m not sure what I thought faith was. I think I thought it was the fact that you just believed God. (Oh if it were only that simple. LOL)

I didn’t realize that it was a force that actually propels you to do the things that God has called you to do. Everything you desire to receive from God comes by faith including your salvation.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. — Ephesians 2:8

That’s why the Bible also says that whatever you ask for in prayer, BELIEVE that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24).

You need faith in order to accomplish your goals. It’s the foundation of everything you need to walk in purpose. It’s what helps you achieve anything significant. In fact, it’s impossible to please God without it. (Hebrews 11:6)

The best way that I can put it is faith is a force. (It’s also a muscle, but I won’t get into that right now lol). But you either have enough faith to receive what you’re believing God for, or you don’t. 

That’s why there are days when you feel more motivated to achieve your goals and other days when you don’t. That’s why there are some days when you feel more confident to do what God has called you to do and other days when you aren’t.

If you take the time to look around you and really dig deeper into why you were feeling motivated and encouraged on those certain days, it’s most likely because you were around something that increased your faith consciously or unconsciously, and increased faith leads to increased confidence. 

Yes, it’s that deep! 

God gives each of us a measure of faith and it is our responsibility to grow the level of faith that we have. That’s why God sometimes tests us so that we can grow our faith.

If we’re willing to be honest, you wouldn’t have the faith you have today had you not gone through the things that you’ve been through. You can actually say with complete confidence that you are somebody with greater faith because of the experiences that you’ve had. 

For example, when I hosted my first women’s empowerment workshop, T-Time, it all happened through faith. Of course, there was a part that I had to play, but there were so many supernatural things that happened to make that event possible that I can’t say it was ANYTHING or ANYONE but God. You can read the recap about the event in detail here. 

The Purpose of Faith

The point is you need faith to produce what you want in life. God has put gifts inside of you and He’s put ideas in your head. He’s given you visions. Everything that you think about as it relates to your purpose or destiny, I am a firm believer that God put it there.

God has GREAT plans for you. He wants you to succeed. He wants you to be successful. He wants you to be rich. He wants you to have generational blessings. Why? Because He loves you and wants you to experience His best.

But it’s also because He wants you to help advance the Kingdom of God. If you have what He has promised, more people would come to know Him. More people would be attracted to you. More people would ask questions and want to know about the God that you serve. 

This is what happened in the Bible with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were very wealthy men who were successful in all their ways. The same goes for Ruth and David.

Faith and Works

God wants to give you things beyond your wildest imagination. He is on your side, but the Bible does say that faith without works is dead (James 2:17) — this is NOT the type of work where you try to EARN anything from God but the type of work where you PARTNER with Him to walk out your destiny. 

It takes faith to do what God says especially when it doesn’t make sense.

• It’s writing the book when He tells you to write even though you don’t have a platform yet.
• It’s speaking boldly to the stranger at the grocery store and being a witness of God’s love even though you don’t know how.
• It’s loving someone through their pain when everyone else would have left.
• It’s asking for the promotion, the contract, or the offer when you’re scared to do it.

So the problem for many of us (myself included) is not the ideas or the individual action steps needed to accomplish what we want. The problem is our faith.

We’re not being intentional about activating our faith, growing our faith, or maintaining our faith on a regular, reoccurring basis. We want to access the promises of God but we haven’t necessarily put ourselves in a position where we believe that God’s promises are possible.

The Source of Faith

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

In the past, I was listening to something related to faith at least twice a week. When I was planning the T-Time event, I was confessing scripture literally every day and listening to a sermon twice a day just to maintain the level of faith I needed to produce the event God assigned me to do.

So when I look back and think about what I’ve been listening to the last two months, it wasn’t anything related to faith. Yes, I was reading devotionals. I was reading the Bible. I was spending time in prayer but this is how important faith is. 

Instead of a devotional, I needed to be listening something directly related to growing my faith. Instead of a random Bible reading plan, I needed to be confessing scriptures related to what I was believing God for and you can learn more about confessing the Word of God here. I can’t stress enough how VITAL this is.

How Faith Gets Stolen

And just as I needed to be intentional about growing my faith, I also needed to be intentional about staying away from sources that could snatch my faith.

This is how subtle the enemy is. He knows that if he can steal your faith, then he has basically stopped you from pleasing God AND stopped you from receiving God’s promises which all come by faith. I mean seriously, this is some deep stuff! LOL 

So what are some things that snatch our faith?

• Comparison
• Discouragement
• Disappointment
• Trauma
• Bitterness
• Jealousy
• Doubt
• Fear
• Hurt

The list can literally go on.

If you identify with anything on or off this list, I encourage you to spend some time with God and ask Him what is causing you to doubt who He is or His promises for your life. Ask Him to reveal where it all started (the experience where the lie crept in) and ask Him to reveal what lie you are believing – whether it’s about Him or about yourself.

Once you dig and God reveals the answer to you, ask Him to heal you in that particular area and to help you believe that His promises are true and that He will help you finish what He has started (Philippians 1:6). 

Check Your Source

Another important thing to consider when it comes to walking in faith is that God must be the true source.

Sometimes, we turn to the wrong sources. We turn to people. We turn to things. We turn to outlets. We turn to Instagram thinking we’ll find inspiration or something that will help us get back on track, but the only one that can help us fulfill our God-ordained purpose is the One that called us to do it.

So if someone on Instagram inspired or prompted you to do something with your life, purpose, or business, chances are the motivation you have won’t last long. This doesn’t mean that God can’t use things or people, but as a reminder, faith comes from hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

When we think about it, there are plenty of scriptures that tell us that God should be the true source of everything that we’re trying to do in life. 

• Lean not into your own understanding but in all of your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. — Proverbs 3:5-6 
• But seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added onto you. — Matthew 6:33
• Many are the ways of a man’s heart but it’s God’s will that ultimately prevails. — Proverbs 19:21

So if I can leave you with some final encouragement, it would be that God loves you so much. He has so much in store for you, but we must all do our part in believing that He is faithful to do what He has promised.

If you’re ready to walk by faith, believe who God says you are, and receive His promises, write in the comments, I BELIEVE! 

Let’s Discuss

1. What are you believing God for or what has God called you to do?
2. How can you be more intentional about growing your faith in this season?