Me: What are you up too today Prodigal?
Prodigal: Walking this path? It seems to end in a circle. I didn’t realize it when I started but I really have not gotten anywhere.
Me: How many times in life have I set forth in my own direction. Following my own will I ended up going no where. Well I learned how to walk by faith and that path is more like a zig zag but always ends up with a gift and blessing from God.
Prodigal: Explain about this walking by faith and not by sight.
Me: Well Jennifer (wonderful name) Rothschild in her book Lessons I Learned in the Dark explains this the best.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). If we understand that this is what faith is, we can exercise it in the confidence the apostle Paul talked about when he said, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Walking by faith is acting upon a reality not yet seen.
Relying on sight in our faith walk never allows us to accomplish God’s best. What’s more, it never reveals the hidden treasures that only the eyes of faith can see. But most of us never learn to walk by faith…until we learn to walk in the dark. We don’t lean on God until fear makes us feel shaky and weak.
Walking by faith, that is my journey now. I remember my first baby steps walking in faith. It was so difficult. You see, God blessed me with a high IQ. That IQ has helped me in the world of the seen but it prevented me from walking by faith. In my logical, calculating mind, I wanted all the steps before me laid out so I could analyze if this was the path too go. Well that is the opposite of what God wants.
Just imagine. We need to go to a new city and show up at a hotel we have never heard of to attend a meeting with someone very important. What is the first thing we all do. We get the address and put it in our GPS system on phone or device. We determine miles, how long it should take and any plan B’s we might need. We have no guess work at all. We even pull up on Google what the building looks like and the street. No guess work is involved at all so that we will not get lost.
Walking by faith though is when God says I want you to go to this hotel. You cannot use any GPS device at all. You will not know how long it will take. You will not know the path you will drive and what is on the road that you are driving. You have to have faith that I will produce a sign along the road right before you need to turn. You have to trust that I know the way and that you are safe with me guiding you.
You see why it was difficult for me to walk by faith? You see why a lot of Christians will not walk by faith? You see why your Christian friends and family try to talk you out of walking by faith?
Walking by faith means people will not understand you, people will not support you, people will discourage you. It also means surrendering amount of control over this trip. I can say this. Walking by faith means that when everyone else is following the same GPS route and it gets congested and boring. God will have a road full of twists and turns that will keep you being amazed over and over again and will not be boring!
Now excuse me a second I think God just showed up with a quick road sign for me….
2 Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
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