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Faith always starts with information. It starts with thinking.  
Faith always starts with information. It starts with thinking.  


How do you develop enough faith in somebody to marry them? What do you say?
How do you develop your faith? You develop your faith through thinking, through reasoning it out, through getting the evidence.
Well, I suppose there are some fools who do this. You look at her, and you say, “She is gorgeous. I don’t want to know anything else about her. I don’t want to talk to people about what kind of person she is. I don’t want to spend time with her to find out just really what kind of character she has. I don’t want to know the facts. I don’t want to know the facts. I believe she is the woman for me.”
 
There are people who have done that. It’s a sad thing, and that’s not a joke. The fact is, everybody knows you do need faith in order to marry somebody, and the stupidest thing in the world is to try to build your faith by closing your mind to the facts. The smart thing is to develop your faith, and that’s the natural way to develop your faith, by thinking. How do you decide whether you’re going to have minor surgery? You get up enough faith, and you do this.
How do you develop faith in a doctor? How do you develop enough faith in somebody to marry them? What do you say?
You say, “I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know anything about it. I don’t want to know why I need it. I don’t want to know what the effects are. I don’t want to know the side effects. I don’t want to know that. I just want to do it.” Nobody operates like that. In order to get faith enough in the doctor and in the procedure, you study it. Let me ask you this. On Saturday morning if you wake up and you say, “Oh my. I agreed to have this surgery, but now I just can’t.” You call in sick, or you say, “I can’t do it,” or you postpone it or something like that. You’ve lost your faith.
 
Well, how did you lose your faith? Did you get new information that shows you it wasn’t a good idea? No. You lost your faith because you stopped thinking and you started reacting. You see that? You stopped thinking. You didn’t get new information. You stopped thinking. You just got up and said, “Oh, it’s going to be painful. It’s going to be hard. I’m going to be off work for three days.” Instead of saying, “Wait a minute. If I don’t do it now, this is going to happen later. I’ve studied all this.” No, faith starts by thinking, and when you lose your faith, it’s because you stopped thinking.
Well, I suppose there are some fools who do this. You look at her, and you say, “''She is gorgeous. I don’t want to know anything else about her. I don’t want to talk to people about what kind of person she is. I don’t want to spend time with her to find out just really what kind of character she has. I don’t want to know the facts. I don’t want to know the facts. I believe she is the woman for me.''
 
There are people who have done that. It’s a sad thing, and that’s not a joke. The fact is, everybody knows you do need faith in order to marry somebody, and the stupidest thing in the world is to try to build your faith by closing your mind to the facts.  
 
The smart thing is to develop your faith, and that’s the natural way to develop your faith, by thinking. How do you decide whether you’re going to have minor surgery? You get up enough faith, and you do this.
 
You say, “''I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know anything about it. I don’t want to know why I need it. I don’t want to know what the effects are. I don’t want to know the side effects. I don’t want to know that. I just want to do it.''”  
 
 
Why do you think Paul says we walk by faith, not by sight? He means as you walk by what you know, you stick with what the truth is, and you tell your moods and your feelings and your fears where to get off. That’s faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. We go on what we know, not by what we see, not on what the appearances are, not on what the feeling is, not on how it feels at this moment. We walk by faith. We know.
Why do you think Paul says we walk by faith, not by sight? He means as you walk by what you know, you stick with what the truth is, and you tell your moods and your feelings and your fears where to get off. That’s faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. We go on what we know, not by what we see, not on what the appearances are, not on what the feeling is, not on how it feels at this moment. We walk by faith. We know.
Three people all say, “Do not fall in love with that guy. He will break your heart.” You believe those people, and they’ve never let you down before, but suddenly you fall under his spell. What have you done? You’ve lost faith in what they said. What happens when he breaks your heart? You wake up, and you say, “Why didn’t I think?” You walked by faith? No, you walked by sight. Faith, therefore, is not the absence of thinking. Not at all. Faith is the highest, and it’s the most complete kind of thinking.
Three people all say, “Do not fall in love with that guy. He will break your heart.” You believe those people, and they’ve never let you down before, but suddenly you fall under his spell. What have you done? You’ve lost faith in what they said. What happens when he breaks your heart? You wake up, and you say, “Why didn’t I think?” You walked by faith? No, you walked by sight. Faith, therefore, is not the absence of thinking. Not at all. Faith is the highest, and it’s the most complete kind of thinking.