Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5-6
What does your Christian walk say to those around you? Are you walking by faith or by fear? Do you live a life of great anticipation or great anxiety? Does your actions compliment your words? Do you believe that the one you get down on your knees and pray to will actually protect, provide and keep its promise when you get off your knees?
I pose these questions because it seems like these days, more “Christians” are living a life of fear and not of faith. While those who don’t profess to have a “personal” relationship with God live a life of freedom, liberation, out of the box, once in a lifetime passion. Those who profess to be sold out for Jesus live a life of caution, closed minded, in the moment existence. What is wrong with this picture?
Those who claim to love the Lord, trust the Lord, and live the promise of the Lord more often than not can be found falling apart, worrying the worse and hesitating to live. There is no boldness in how we approach life and all that life brings. We can’t say we have faith the size of a mustard seed and seem to only believe it when all things are good. God allows life to be experienced by everyone…the just and unjust. Which means we ALL will experience loss and love. We ALL will experience seasons of plenty and seasons of drought. And, in it all God is still God.
How can we be a witness to the unchurched if we don’t stand out from them? If we act and react the same way those who don’t know Jesus do, how can we say with a straight face that God is our strength. You must be able to practice what you profess. You must be able to walk your talk. There is no witness if your faith is viewed to be weak by those we are called to disciple.
Your faith is not strengthened in times of plenty, but rather in times of challenge. For God to believe you have sincere and authentic faith and it not be just words, He often will bring you seasons of challenge. Look at Job. He was a man who was faithful to God in his season of plenty. But, God allowed Satan to bring a season of extreme challenge on his life to also show that Job’s faith was not conditional. Job’s faith was consistent and even strengthened in his season of loss, death and despair. And, because Job showed God, satan and man that his faith was not just talk, but real, God blessed him with double in his latter days.
Does God look at you and believe that your faith is authentic, consistent and sincere enough to be a witness and a breakthrough to those you come in contact? If not, and you feel you are living a life more of fear than faith, pray to God for a liberation of that stronghold. In breaking free from the spirit of fear you can begin to fully walk in faith and fact… believing that God is in control of ALL things, at ALL times, and will ALWAYS be with you even until the end of the earth.
Walk in faith. Live in love.
Mo Wood
