Spread Your Wings!
Don’t you just love the way that the Lord keeps bringing little insights which lead to an ever-deepening understanding of something He wants to show you?
‘Act in faith and trust in the Lord’ is a little phrase He gave me quite a while ago, yet it seems to keep coming back as I notice that most things God has for us require we take a step of faith first.
In the book of James we read: ‘So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead’ (Jas 2:17). When claiming any of God’s wonderful promises, we must first believe that we will receive (have faith) and then step out and exercise it!
Paul writes ‘for we walk by faith, not by sight’ (2Co 5:7) and ‘In all circumstances take up the shield of faith,’ (Eph 6:16). Notice, if you will, the active verbs ‘walk’ and ‘take up’ - it isn’t going to happen on its own, as if by magic!
I suppose another way of putting it would be to say something we have faith in is only realised when we do something that depends on that faith. Peter had to step out of the boat! (That he took his eyes off Jesus when he realised what was actually happening is a lesson in remaining steadfast in faith, but it doesn’t alter the fact that he had to step out of the boat before he could walk on the water.)
I’m beginning to see that the Lord will give us the desires of our hearts when we ask (how could we doubt it when he promises so many times in His word), but if we stop short of acting as if we have received, we’ll never know it.
I have been praying for Holy Spirit power to witness on the streets (because I’m rubbish at it) but it was only when I realised that I had to make a real effort to engage with people that His power has begun to flow. He’d given it to me all along - I just hadn’t tried using it. Faith without works is dead!
Okay, so what if we act in faith but get it wrong? A reasonable question! I believe that if we act out of a true heart we can trust in the Lord to put us right and to protect us from harm if our chosen action could lead to danger. This is why I say ‘Act in faith and trust in the Lord’.
In Exodus, we read that as the Israelites waited in fear and bewilderment on the shores of the Red Sea, Moses cried out to the Lord. The Lord replied, “Tell the people to go forward.” Then, and only then, did He part the waters and deliver them out of bondage. Wasn’t it the same for us when we were saved?
