#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 42 – The Adventure of Affirmations

#52 Ancestor Challenge 2019, Week 42 – The Adventure of Affirmations

The Adventure of Affirmations

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert Future, wrote about the power of affirmations. He described writing “I want to be a great writer” fifteen times a day for six months. At the end of the six months, he realized that he still wanted to be a great writer. So, he changed his affirmation to something that had a measurable goal, “My next book will be a best seller.” And, despite the odds, his next book became a best seller. 

After reading The Dilbert Future, a very, very, very dear friend of mine (very close to me, indeed) wanted to try out this cool affirmation idea – but as a bachelor, his life was absolutely perfect, and he had nothing practical to desire. After some consideration, he decided that he might benefit from a stronger belief in God. His first several days of writing “I believe in God” had the same issue that Scott’s first affirmations had: no way to gauge success or failure. He corrected that by writing, “I believe in God to my great benefit.” Faithfully, fifteen times a day he wrote his affirmation. After several months, he met someone and fell in love, Now, he tells people, “I don’t know who, what, how, where, when or why God is; that’s not my job. My job is to thank God. I go straight to the Old Testament, and it says, praise God, thank God. When I look at the New Testament, I know if there is a heaven, I will only get there by the grace of God.” 

Thank God! Thank God! Thank God! When I pray, even during the darkest times, I praise and thank God as though my request is an accomplished fact. The Power of Affirmation is believing your prayers are already answered. 

Scott Adams said on his blog, “Here’s a good test of your personality. If all of your friends told you that they win money on the slot machines whenever they stick their fingers in their own ears, would you try it? Or would you assume that since there is no obvious reason it could work, it’s not worth the effort? “

Mark 11:22-24 Revised Standard Version (RSV)

22 “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.