The last few months have been an emotionally bumpy ride for me. On my recently updated rollercoaster of life (now fifty percent faster with higher hills and loop-ier loops!), I found myself in several situations that have made me confront my understanding of living by faith. I thought I knew what it was, but like many concepts in life, you really don’t understand something until you’ve experienced it. Well, my experience is that I still have a lot to learn about living by faith. You see, our lives do not always match our beliefs. Let me explain: We may witness God’s amazing power and love and say that we believe in Him, but what do our actions say? When the world is falling down all around us, do we really trust Him? We may talk about having faith, but do we live by faith? Does it really matter? We believe, isn’t that enough? We’ve heard of the importance of faith. Yet, sometimes I think we forget how important it really is. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” This is pretty clear. The Greek presents the idea of impossibility based on our being powerless. In other words, without faith we are powerless to please God. I am emphasizing this because we have somehow come to the conclusion that we can easily please God with our own actions. We sing God a song and since we thought it was beautiful and well done, it must have pleased God. We give God our tithes and offerings and since it was not a meager amount and we were pretty cheerful when we gave it, it must have pleased God. We talk to God and read His word when we get a chance, volunteer at the church fairly often, and fulfill many other prescribed church “duties”—basically, we are good Christians—therefore we must please God. Yet, the verse is clear, we can do all of that but if we do not have faith we are not pleasing God. An earlier passage in Hebrews takes this idea up a notch. “But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38). You see, according to the Bible, God’s people will not only believe—not only have faith—they will live by this faith (see also Habakkuk 2:4). We may be familiar with this concept, but unfortunately, we are not as familiar with how it looks in real life. Yes, faith must be active and will be revealed in what we do (James 2:17), but it is not mere actions, it is obedience. This passage showed us the alternative—not living by faith—and described it as “shrinking back.” It is talking about not starting or not continuing to do something due to fear. Thus, not doing something, or stopping something, that God asks of us because we are afraid is the opposite of living by faith. Which, again, leads to not pleasing God. What then is living by faith? This is how Paul described it in his life: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). To live by faith, Paul had to die—not a literal death, but a symbolic death—he no longer lived but Christ lived in him. Living by faith was him giving up control of his life. Jesus was making the decisions instead. In order to live by faith, he had to become completely dependent on Jesus. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” Walking by sight means living by human wisdom—trusting in human traditions, ideas, ingenuity, resources, etc. It is being dependent on human sufficiency; trusting only what we can see. It is believing that we must succeed on our own efforts. Walking by faith means living by Christ’s wisdom—fully relying on His grace, power, counsel, and promises. It is completely dependent on Christ’s sufficiency. It is understanding that we can only succeed with His help. Walking by faith requires obedience, even when you cannot see. Of course, when you walk by faith you will want to obey, because you trust that although you cannot see, God can. So, when God says start walking, you start walking. When God says stop, you stop. When God wants you to follow where He’s leading, you don’t question His wisdom, you obey. It does not guarantee us an easy life, it only guarantees that in the end we will be where God wants us to be. Living by faith is giving up the final say in your life; it is changing your dependence from you to God. This is what it means to live by faith: hold on to Jesus and let Him do the walking. As Paul said, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” We no longer attempt to live this life on our understanding and choices, but fully trusting in Jesus’ leading. We will become fully dependent on Jesus. We will depend on Him for correction and for direction. We will want to know and follow His will, even when we don’t understand it. I’m not suggesting this is an easy thing to do. This concept is against our nature. It may take time to fully trust God. So start with the little things; it will become easier to trust Him with the bigger things later. Then, we can learn to say, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2).
