http:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/articles.html<\/a> and click on the top link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is faith? Most would say that faith is a strong belief in spiritual things. I think that faith is something entirely different. Belief is a product of the mind. Faith emanates from the soul. Belief determines what we think and choose. Faith determines the extent we experience spiritual reality. To read the entire article, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Hhvw-2v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/creating-an-opening-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":0},"title":"Creating an Opening for God","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Among those who believe in the power of prayer, some seem to have better results than others. Why is that? No formula exists that can force God to do what we want. God is not manipulated. But we can take steps to make us more receptive to His generosity. Preparation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Openness to God"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/faith-drives-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":1},"title":"Faith Drives Experience","date":"December 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Because you believe in My goodness, you experience My goodness.\" God spoke those words to me during a song at church. For the rest of the service, I was caught up in the implications of that statement. I wondered if the inverse were true. If I didn't believe in God's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":159,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/when-faith-doesnt-work-targets-versus-outcomes\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":2},"title":"When Faith Doesn’t Work: Targets Versus Outcomes","date":"February 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you\u2019re like me, you want a magic formula to guarantee that God will answer your prayers every time. When God doesn't come through, you think that maybe you did something wrong. I didn't have enough faith. My intention wasn't pure enough. My heart wasn't right. I should've prayed more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/guest-columnist-for-local-paper\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":3},"title":"Guest Columnist For Local Paper","date":"February 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Martinez Tribune In October, I started my free subscription system for people who wanted to read my inspirational articles. In November, I contacted my local paper, The Martinez Tribune, about submitting these articles for their Faith section. After reading some sample articles, they were delighted to publish them. Since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":305,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/when-effort-is-not-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":4},"title":"When Effort is Not Enough","date":"September 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When you pursue an important goal, you want God\u2019s help to accomplish it, whether looking for a job, trying to lose weight, or seeking wisdom for a friend in trouble. But what is the balance between exerting effort and trusting in God? What is your part and what is God\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":246,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/engaging-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":155,"position":5},"title":"Engaging God","date":"November 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"How do we come to know God? Do we grasp God by reading books? Or by listening to others tell us who God is? Reading a book about someone isn't as instructive as interacting with that person firsthand. Someone can read all the books written about God, but never experience\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}