“Faith must be cultivated. It cannot be achieved by mere wishful thinking. If you throw yourself off a mountaintop with the affirmation, ‘God will protect me,’ just see if He does! He expects you to use the common sense He has given you. Have faith, but at the same time be practical. Don’t make unnecessary demands of God, nor expect Him to do everything for you just because you believe in Him.
He will take care of you, but you must also do your share. Surely, if you do your best, and always act sensibly, you can leave the results in His hands. Faith, however, must be watered by inner experiences, like a plant. The more you actually experience the care He takes of you, the more you will come to rely on Him — not fanatically, but naturally, in a divine way.
There is much in your life that might give you faith even now. You don’t have to wait for visions to give it to you. Go by what you’ve experienced already. Don’t keep your religion on a merely mental level.
Have you ever felt God’s peace in meditation? Have you felt His love touching your heart? Aren’t these already something real and meaningful to you? Cling to them. Make experience the basis of your faith. As Jesus said, ‘We speak that which we know.’ (John 3:11) Build on what you already know. As Jesus said also, ‘Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.’ (Matthew 13:12)
Faith means expanding your intuitive awareness of God’s presence within, and not relying on reason as your chief means of understanding. The degree of faith, and the flow of divine grace in your life, are determined by your depth of Self-realization (awareness of one’s inner experience of God). What you attempt to accomplish by grace should be tempered (or moderated) by what you have received of God’s power in your life.”
The Essence Of Self-Realization – The Wisdom Of Paramhansa Yogananda, Recorded and compiled by his disciple, J. Donald Walters, p. 104 – 107.
