Walking in Faith

WALKING IN FAITH

To live our life walking in faith, faith in God, trusting and believing in Him, building a relationship with Him and leaning on Him for our strength, courage, understanding and direction is a marvelous way to live and get through these troubled times.  It doesn’t mean we will never see troubles, sickness, suffering, poverty, cruelty, shame and of this, that our journey through this life will be an easy one.  God never said it would be but He did promise to walk through it with us and get us through it all when we walk in faith with Him.

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.  My help cometh from the lord, which made heaven and earth.  He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.  Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.  The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.  The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”  Psalm 121: 1-8

What does it mean to walk in faith?  Within the Christian community we hear this often that we are to “Walk in faith.”  We are to pray and put our faith and hope, our trust in the Lord and simply follow Him no matter how dark and gloomy the road ahead my look to us.  Jesus is already there and knows the way we need to go.  So when we walk in faith, what does it mean?  What does God say about faith?

The Bible tells us what faith is.  It says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Hebrews 11:1  Simply by asking God and believing, having faith that it is so we can know that those things we hope for already are even though we have no evidence, can’t see it at the moment.  God promised that when we walk in faith it is so.  We don’t need to worry or be afraid and there is no need to doubt when we walk, live by faith, ask for God’s direction and help according to His will.  Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”  Matthew 7: 7-8

We live in trying times but the world has lived in trying times since the day Eve was deceived and it hasn’t gotten any better since then.  Without faith, hope in God the trials and tribulations of this world become overwhelming but when we pray God, walk in faith, no matter how great our troubles God will see us through.  Faith is the thread that holds us together.  Walking in faith gets us through the hard times and brings us even greater joy in the good times.  God is a rewarder of faith.  It pleases God to bless us when we keep faith with Him, come to Him for all things, when we pray.  The very substance of prayer is faith.  Without faith there is no need to pray, even the tiniest bit of faith is all we need but we must come to God in faith, trusting and believing God is and God hears and answers our prayer.   “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”  Matthew 17: 20 Through faith all things are possible when our faith is in the Lord.  

It is through faith, prayer that God directs us when we are in a hard place, dark valley and don’t know what to do, which way to turn, grieving, hurt, afraid.  God gives us courage and strength and the knowledge and wisdom we need when we need it as we walk in faith. 

The Bible says; “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”  James 1: 5-6  And in the book of Mark it is recorded what Jesus said to His followers; it says, So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”  Mark 11: 22-23  It is through faith we find our salvation, our help and our hope.

“Behold; God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song.  He is also become my salvation.”   Isaiah 12: 2

We are to walk in faith.  We have to trust God in all things, knowing by faith He has heard our petition and has answered our prayers according to His perfect will.  The key words here are His perfect will.  We may not always get things exactly our own way but it will always be exactly what we need and when we need it and even if we don’t see an answer immediately or understand what God is doing or why things are as they are when we walk in faith with God all things will work out perfectly and for our very best.  Sometimes God says no and sometimes God says yes; and many times God says wait, keep faith, trust me, just keep walking and everything will be all right.

The Bible tells us, “My son (daughter,) give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”  Proverbs 4: 20-22

No matter how great our troubles seem, how deep our valley, how high our mountain or raging our seas, God is bigger, and God is real, and God is very much in control of the situation.  All God asks of us is to believe, keep the faith and walk in it.  When we need help, God is always there, our salvation, our hope and our trust.

God says we are to pray.  Pray is to communicate with God, Lord God Jehovah through Jesus the Christ.  God wants us to talk with Him, share what is going on in our life, the good and the bad and to come to Him in faith.  This pleases God when we do.  He doesn’t want us to try to go it alone.  He wants us to seek Him, to diligently seek Him, talk with Him, put our trust in Him and follow Him.  We are to keep faith with Him in all ways and in all things.  Hebrews 11:6 says; “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He (God) is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” 

We need to constantly seek Him, seek God’s will and follow His directions.  We need to keep faith with God.  No matter the era we live in or what is going on in the world around us we must continue to walk in faith.  There was never and never will be a time when we do not need God’s help and guidance in our life.  Therefore we should always pray, pray constantly about all things, the good, the bad, the ugly and not just when we feel desperate and at our wits end and we should come to Him in prayer and with thanksgiving, thanking Him for hearing us and answering our prayer, for all our blessings and for His forgiveness of all our foolishness and mistakes.  We all make foolish choices sometimes and we all make mistakes.  We need to acknowledge our need for God and God’s help and to walk in faith knowing God walks with us.

When we walk in faith we can truly say: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”  Psalm 23: 1-6