We Walk by Faith

For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Cor. 5:7

Faith without works is dead. How many of us know it takes faith to live? We walk by faith and not by sight nor by feelings. Instead, we walk by faith in the Son of God and the promises found in His Word.

For some people it takes faith in God and His promises to receive strength to get up in the morning. For others it takes faith to tie one’s shoes. When my dad was recovering from a life-threatening illness, he asked God every day to help him get dressed, eat his breakfast and sit in his chair for awhile. He turned to God for help and then worked hard to do all he could do.

For my Indonesian friend, Isaac, it takes faith and belief in God to accomplish a God-given vision for his country. After much prayer, he is taking seriously the command to “go into all the world and preach the gospel.” His vision is to train the church in Indonesia to evangelize their nation. Through networking with existing ministries in his country and evangelizing the unreached people groups, he hopes to reach the goal to raise up 20,000 new pastors by 2020 who, in turn, will produce two million new disciples. Wow! Walking by faith demands our full commitment.

Mother Teresa stepped out in faith and went to the poorest and least served people in India. Her obedience reduced and eliminated suffering for thousands of people and gave others many opportunities to share love and compassion. She won the Nobel Peace Prize and became an example to the world.

There are different kinds of faith. The Bible tells us “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” It requires a response. So, what exactly is faith? The Bible says “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Bible faith is based squarely upon God’s written word, His promises, and His character.

Natural faith is based upon the natural order of things, such as “every day has 24 hours in it.”

Then, there is circumstantial faith which is, obviously, based on circumstances. Let’s use the light switch for example. In America, we expect the lights to go on when we flip the switch on. We put our faith in past experience and that the electric company will do its job in providing us with electrical power.

In my international travels, I’ve experienced how fragile circumstantial faith can be. In one country, it was almost a given that in the early afternoon, the electricity would go off. Computers instantly shut down, fans stopped whirling, and local phones suddenly went dead. We had no faith in the electric company!

How does this apply to you and me right now? You’re reading this, because you’re either a person on a journey to get well, a cancer survivor, or a relative or friend of someone fighting the battle against cancer. Presently, I work with patients who have cancer and their loved ones. Living a life of faith requires putting our trust in something bigger than ourselves and bigger than our circumstances.

What’s bigger than our own thinking or circumstances? What do we put our faith in? How do we live a life of faith in the middle of difficult circumstances? I contend that we can live a life of faith in hard circumstances. In fact, the Bible is overflowing with examples of everyday people who trusted God and put their faith in him. He spoke, and they took him at His word. This is Bible faith. This is the kind of faith needed for us to walk in victory, regardless of our circumstances.

Faith in God doesn’t just happen. Like all relationships, our relationship with God has to be nurtured. Having faith that sustains us in hard times requires something of us. I recently heard someone say she was surprised at the peace she was experiencing. I asked about this. She said the peace came after “surrendering” to God. Giving God her today and her tomorrow gave her inner peace.

Faith to meet today’s challenges is built day by day as we practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible reading and surrender. Faith without works is dead, the Apostle James said in James 2:17. Living faith isn’t passive. It’s active. As we remind ourselves of the truths about faith, you and I can live a life of faith. Then, regardless of circumstances, we experience God in our midst … holding our hands, leading us on and filling us with His peace. 

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