The Challenge of Walking by Faith

 “For we live by believing and not by seeing” 2 Corinthians 5:7 NLT

My husband and I recently went for a walk that was taking us out to the ocean. We’re beach bums at heart, and were looking for a little time to recharge our batteries as sunshine warmed our and frothy waves pounded the shore. However, to get to the perfect spot, we had to cross a small riverbed that bled into the ocean. The riverbed was further complicated by rocks that were smattered along the sand, just enough to complicate the crossing but not enough to prevent it. As I approached the spot to cross, something in me came to a halt. The sand was thick, the water was rushing, and the rocks were not obvious in my path. What if I twisted my ankle? What if I fell and everyone on the shoreline laughed at me? What if someone is filming my tumble and I become the next viral and unfortunate meme?!? To console my eyes and my rapidly spinning out of control thoughts I tried to watch where my husband placed his feet so I could follow suit…..only to realize his prints were washed away in seconds with the flow of water. And that’s when the voice of the Lord spoke the perfect reminder to me: “we walk by faith, not by sight”

The thing is, we all come across challenges on a weekly, daily, if not moment by moment basis. Following Jesus is not easy, and it’s not meant to be. That’s why our walk with him requires faith, trust and belief. It doesn’t mean we won’t freeze, fear or want to go back. But what if this opportunity is exactly that- a stepping stone to pave the way for us to live a life that is walking by faith?

The moment I crossed the riverbed almost felt like an out of body experience. I wanted to close my eyes, and cross simply trusting the rhythm of putting one foot in front of the other. It almost worked until I slipped, but before I went down reflexes kicked in and I righted myself. The water was so clouded, all I could do was keep walking, praying, trusting and put one foot in front of the other.

That’s it.

There was no secret sauce. No miraculous deliverance. No Moses to part the waters and make the way obvious with his staff and/or supernatural GPS……it simply took the marriage of faith, gumption and the willingness to move forward.

In retrospect my biggest questions are these: what if we don’t understand when God shows up? What if he’s there the whole time silently cheering us on to take the next step? What if we don’t understand the way through until we’ve crossed, knowing if we’ve done it once, we can do it again? I think as much as we want the way to be clear, walking by faith is both scary…..and an invitation to trust him in the adventure. It might actually require us to take a leap so we exercise belief that our God will show up, even when we can’t see it.

And that is where I will leave you today my dear friends….with a question I’m begging you to be honest with yourself in answering: where is God calling you to live and walk by faith? Is it trusting him with a situation that is out of your control? A breakthrough you’ve been longing for? Or taking the leap on something you know he has called you to do, but the step is freezing you cold? Whatever the situation, my encouragement is this: take the step, pray as you go, and trust. There is no one more faithful and true, who is worth believing than our beautiful Jesus.

So much love,

Joy

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