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Topic: Walk (07/20/06)
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TITLE: The Challenge of Walking by Faith | Previous Challenge Entry
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07/25/06 -
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Growing up, I was very adventurous. Whether it was climbing mountains, bicycling across the country, or venturing out in a hurricane, I always loved adventure. Yet the scariest, biggest adventure was committing my life to Christ. When I was 20, I was given the challenge of beginning my walk by faith. I didn’t realize then that so much of what I did was already based on faith. It was scary because it meant handing control over to One that would be much better at handling my life than I was.
By the time I took that step of faith I was deep in depression and ready for suicide. God is always available through prayer yet often we are distant. He wanted to wrap His arms around me, embrace me, carry me, lift me, and love me. Yet I wanted to pull away and be distant. Finally I took that step and gave myself to the One who holds it all together, Christ.
The next step of faith was trusting God to provide for me financially. I confess I am still learning that, despite seeing Him ever faithful each year. I know many Christians do not tithe, yet I learned early the importance and benefits of tithing. I was not blessed with family wealth and did not learn to apply myself in school until much later on. So I was destined to work hard and learned how to stretch my money. And tithing helped me learn discipline.
Another big step was trusting God to provide me with a godly spouse. I committed to prayer for 6 months and planned to remain single if nothing happened after 6 months. At the end of 6 months however, God provided me with a godly spouse. We raised two children who are now young men.
I also had to trust God to help raise my children and see them start out in life on their own. Our children are still both at home but one son has settled in his career and will eventually earn enough to move out. He has a friend who may become our future daughter in-law. The other son is planning a military career. That also requires faith to see God care for him during war. But God is much better at that than I am.
Yet another step is trusting God for my ministry. He’s allowed me to travel on mission trips and used me to lead many to Christ, yet each person I met required overcoming my fear of speaking. So many steps, so many answered prayers! Was I capable of doing any of this by myself with poor health? No! But God was and is infinitely capable.
A final step is now trusting God for retirement. I know people who say you don’t need to do any retirement planning or financial planning at all. “Just trust God”, they say. It sounds too simplistic to me. I know faith is part of it, but have always felt planning is important also. These people had large pensions as well as a lot of paid off real estate. I tried to point that out to them. Can you imagine how Job must have felt when God wiped out his retirement account and he had questionable counsel? Yet God took good care of Job in the end and He will take care of me too.
Prayer: “God, please help me to learn to trust you more, to better walk by faith. Please continue to use me and to open doors so I may experience more of your abundance. Now we walk by faith but soon we will walk by sight. Help us not just to walk slowly but to be able to eagerly run towards the goals you have in mind for us. Amen.”
What about You?
Are you stuck in a rut, not moving? Are you paralyzed by fear, doubt, and indecision? Or are you learning to walk stronger by faith each day with His help?!
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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