Why Faith is a Key Ingredient to Creating Your Revolutionary Life

Create a Revolutionary Life focuses on four main categories (or what I call "Battlegrounds"):

• Spiritual

• Physical

• Professional

• Financial

While each battleground makes up the "war," the first and most important battleground is the Spiritual Battleground. Whether or not you have a strong faith, weak faith, or what you think is no faith at all, the truth is we all have a spiritual battleground, and it plays a vital role in who we are as a person.

While I am of the Christian faith and a follower of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, I do not condemn others who do not share my belief. While I will make a great case as to why I am a Christian and follower of Christ, and I don't shy away from my faith, I have plenty of friends and family who don't necessarily align with my beliefs, and that's okay.

No matter your belief, faith plays an integral role in creating your revolutionary life.

Many avoid the topic of faith because it is provocative and often hypocritical. Let's be honest, a lot of Christians (pastors and myself included) have not lived the best examples of godliness. I used to be very judgmental of people, and largely in part because I thought it would hold me accountable to my own imperfections and flaws. But, I was wrong.

And when you walk in self-righteousness, condemnation of others, and hypocritical legalism, that is called "religion." It will imprison you and make you a slave to your own devices. Freedom comes from knowing who you are and whose you are meant to be.

Although Jesus was perfect, He does not expect perfection. In fact, not one other person, since the beginning of time, was, is, or ever will be perfect! He was perfect in every sense, so that when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we are "perfected" in Him, and not by our own impossible abilities. It is a free gift!

When we walk with an attitude of gratitude, our desires change, not because we are trying to be perfect, but rather we want to please God by giving Him the best of us in exchange for Him giving His best (Jesus) to us. It's about relationship, not religion.

Did you know that Jesus was not convicted and crucified by the government, but rather by the high priests of the temple? They were so legalistic that they considered Jesus a heretic and were the driving force behind His ultimate death. They hated the fact that He was known as a "friend of sinners," which means He was a friend of the unloved, despised, imperfect cast-aways of society.

Religion says we have to be perfect or we have to "earn" our way into God's favor. The harder we work, the more favor we receive. That is not what Scripture tells us.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast [take credit for themselves].

Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV

Creating your revolutionary life requires faith in God to help you through the journey. He is the pilot and captain of our ship. Knowing and trusting in God in all that we do will make every battle easier to confront and overcome. Simply put, we can't do it on our own!

We need Him and we need each other! Christians are not perfect. No matter how many of us paint the picture, we are all flawed. But, our relationship with God and with each other is key to creating our revolutionary lives.

As we celebrate this Thanksgiving, let us be reminded that perfection isn't the key to salvation or success. Failure is inevitable. But, when we have a faith-filled relationship, it is filled with love, not hatred; grace, not condemnation; hope, not fear; and peace, not protest.

And, those elements are all what creating a revolutionary life is all about! There will always be battles, but with Him as our Commander in Chief, we can overcome all of life's challenges, simply because He has already won the war!