Stepping out in Faith

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Lao Tzu

      In order to walk with God, or start any other journey in life we have to start, we have to take that first step, after that first step there is no turning back. As the hymn says:

"I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back."

      For those who have accepted Jesus as their savior, they often assume that they have made their only step necessary on the journey to heaven. While this is an important step, this is not the only step you should take. In order to understand who God is to us we have to take a journey of understanding into his word. Our first step is the step of faith. What is faith?

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1, KJV)."

     What is it that you hope for? that feeling of knowing what God has promised you is hope, and even though you have not seen it happen yet, you have the evidence that it will. If nothing else, it has changed you, put meaning to your life because you know what God has promised you; a future, hope - Plans that God knows about, and sometimes lets you in on.

      How many people have faith like that? That ability to believe that God will do what he has promised us, such as taking care of us. A child that grows up in church has that kind of faith, some adults do too, i had that kind of faith as a child. However, life happens, and we get carried away with what we want, and when we dont get it, we start to lose faith in what we believe about God. Sure we believe in God, and we believe in Jesus, but when we look at our bills and our money that comes in, all we see are problems that we dont think God can fix.

     It is times like this that God allows us to be put under pressure, so we can understand that he is who he says he is, He is I AM. I know we hate pressure, it makes us mad, we want an easy life; i mean, we are Christians now, everything should be perfect, isnt that what the Bible says? No i am sure that is doesnt. Jesus says for us to take up our cross daily, and that the world would hate us. So why does God give us trials and tribulations?

1 Peter 1:6-7 (New Living Translation)

⁶ So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

      This is why. God wants our faith to be pure, like that little child. How does this work? When we see ourselves in a trial, we have to ask God for strength and believe that he is going to see us through it no matter what. It requires us at times to do something that would seem foolish in our eyes, Like tithe when we cant even pay our own bills. I was dealing with that at one time, my finances were in terrible shape, and God was asking me to tithe, well commanding me to actually. to make a long story short, i tithed and God blessed me in so many ways for being obedient. There was another time where people kept telling me to be a teacher, and i didnt want to be a teacher. I had a hard time finding a job, so i finally told God, if you want me to teach, i'll teach. Guess what? i got a job teaching very soon afterward.
     So many times we dont want to go through the struggle, we dont want to do what God wants us to do. So we let the trials get the best of us, and allow our faith to sink even lower. If we could just learn to trust God, and realize that he only wants the best for us, then we could pass these trials with ease and see our faith in God grow. God will work on us if we let him, he wont force it on us, but how do we change? How can we convince people that God exists if they dont see us change?

     Part of our walk with God is faith, that is most of the journey. Dont allow trials to bring you down, because God promises that everything that happens to us works together for good. I know trials are hard, and i know that you just cant see how God will pull you through this big issue that is coming up, but he will, and it will change you for the better. Put your faith in God when things get rough, because if you can see the way out of something, then it is not faith.