The Next Step

Faith: The confidence that what we hope will happen; it gives us the assurance about things we cannot see. This is the scriptural definition of faith given in Hebrews 11:1. Most of my youth, I wondered how faith actually worked. I spent years knowing that somewhere I was missing something. I thought that it was belief, that believing in something and having faith in something are the same thing. Synonyms.

They are not. Similar, in the same ballpark, you might say. But not the same.

Faith is the next step after belief. The definition of faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something. The key word in this statement, at least to me, is complete. It's not just trust or confidence in someone or something. It's beyond that. Complete. Total. Utter. Unwavering. Unending. Unfailing. FAITH.

At lot of us know about God. We believe, we pray, we read our Bibles. We go to church, maybe that extra service here or there, and we tithe. But all of this, well, it doesn't mean that we have FAITH.

See, it's not what we do in our lives. It's not even why we do whatever it is that we do. It's how we do it.

Years ago, DC Talk had a song, one of my favorites: Love is a Verb. DC Talk is one of my all time favorite groups, whenever I think of them, this song pops into my head. My point is this: Faith is also a verb.

It's an action. To use faith, we put our total, uncompromising trust into something.

Can you honestly say that you do that with God? Everyday? There are always moments of doubt. We all have them. We are human, flawed, but we are all called by God, in one way or another. We should be growing as Christians everyday. Are we? I know that we all have our moments, our days where nothing goes right, when every minute is an uphill struggle.

Our faith should being carrying us through these trials, not the other way around. Adversity should grow our faith even more. Instead, we let our fear of adversity cripple us. Don't let it. Don't let the devil win another round. "Resist the devil and he shall flee from you." - James 4:7

Take that next step. Put your faith into action. Make the devil run.

Sam