Doing God’s Work without Faith
Walking without faith is like wearing ski boots in the summertime. Every step becomes much harder.
It doesn’t matter what task or ministry Jesus has given you to do; doing it in your own strength is frequently tiring, frustrating or both. So here’s a key question; how do we know if we are walking by faith or just relying on our own abilities?
First, let me provide a little more information for people who have never tried snow skiing.
My Ski Boots
With a few lessons and some practice, snow skiing can be a lot of fun. But until you begin to do it well, it’s hard work. There’s also some specialized equipment no skier would be without; a pair of snow skis and some well-fitting ski boots.
Apparently, you don’t need much else.
Ski boots firmly lock your feet into a pair of skis and provide good ankle support. But there is a down side and it’s called “walking.” A pair of women’s ski boots weigh about 5 kg–or roughly 11 pounds. To a new skier like me, it felt like my feet had been strapped into blocks of comfy “padded cement.”
Look Out—Novice Skiers
The beginner’s slope was over-crowded and all of us were really bad at skiing. Our main collective goal? Don’t knock down anyone else. Because they might break something!
Despite a good ski instructor, I couldn’t manage to steer. So when I started sliding down the hill and accidentally aimed at another unsuspecting skier, I had only one way to prevent a collision.
Over and over again, I deliberately fell down in the snow and gently skidded to a stop. I spent my entire day struggling back up to my feet, or clumping inside–in my cement shoes–to get some lunch or hot cocoa.
During my one attempt to learn skiing, wearing the right-sized ski boots didn’t help me. Instead, I just ended up doing a lot of extra heavy lifting.
Like skiing, learning to walk by faith is a process, but it’s not mystical or mysterious. In the simplest terms walking by faith means trusting God–placing people, circumstances and even small problems into His hands and leaving them in His tender care.
4 Signs you’re Walking by Faith
1 Do you believe your own prayers? One day, I was praying for a Christian I loved, who had a rock-hard hardness in their heart.
Suddenly I realized I didn’t believe any of the words I was praying.
My faith tank was on empty.
So I confessed it and cried out to God for help. Immediately the Holy Spirit showed me a mental picture of a chunk of hard ice, lying in a kitchen sink, with the cold water easily chewing through it. Suddenly I had the faith I needed.
Because I knew God could melt my friend’s icy heart.
2 Check your emotional temperature. Are you running hot? Are your emotions boiling over with worry, self-pity, anger, hatred or fear? It’s hard to trust God when our emotions are scalding us on the inside.
3 Do you have peace? If we are walking in faith, placing even our most heartbreaking problems into God’s hands relieves the pressure; it causes us to sigh with relief. True trust in God is very like a being a small child again, believing someone older will “Make it all better.” Twinges of anxiety may still come, but underneath lies a quiet certainty; “Lord, you’ve got this.”
4 True faith feels solid. When I really grab hold of God and His promises, I experience an emotional breakthrough. I am on solid ground again; my heart is relying on Him.
Because we are human, our level of faith continuously rises and falls. But Jesus is not disappointed in us. He loves our honesty when we tell Him, “I’m struggling to believe You for this breakthrough right now.” During a crisis when life gets painful and our emotions become inflamed, it’s harder to trust God.
But there are some practical things we can do.
Please feel free check out my post “7 Ways to Grow or Nourish Your Faith.”
All images came from Pixabay.com
