Stepping Out in Faith

I have discovered the secret of a successful Christian life. Are you ready for it? It is living and walking by faith every day. It is consistency. It is staying with it. As philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “The essential thing ‘in heaven and in earth’ is . . . that there should be long obedience in the same direction.”

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (NKJV). Or, as the New Living Translation puts it, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”

J. Oswald Sanders said that “faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.” Faith sees what could be. Faith does things. Faith takes action. Faith takes risks. Faith leaves its comfort zones to do things for the Lord. And faith that doesn’t produce works is a faith that doesn’t work.
When we step out in faith, God will work. But if we don’t step out in faith, then really not much is going to happen. God works through people who are applying faith.

Faith is not just running a race; it is also walking the walk. Romans 13:13 says, “Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy” (NLT). God is saying, “You’re a Christian. Act like a Christian.”

Hebrews 10:38 says, “The just shall live by faith” (NKJV). We must live by faith. Feelings come and go. We cannot attach our Christian experience to how we are feeling emotionally in the moment. We must learn how to walk by faith.