Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Dr. King was not only making a reference to the trust element of faith, but the fact you can’t rely on what you see to walk in faith.
Perhaps you have heard the verse, “For we live by faith, and not by sight” (NIV). This verse and what Dr. King once said sounds nice, but what does it actually mean? How do we live out this important instruction from God’s Word?
What this verse speaks to is denying the need to have physical, tangible proof of everything. Because of the technological advances of our society, we’ve grown accustomed to having heavy scientific evidence for nearly everything we believe in. But there comes a point when we must simply accept that we aren’t going to have that kind of worldly evidence for everything in life.
That is especially true of faith. God is spirit and His ways are not of this world. He operates outside our understanding of the material world, for He created it in the first place. How then do we expect to confine Him in neat, tidy boxes that we can observe and completely understand? To truly thrive in faith, we must let go of that need for physical evidence and trust that God, the creator of the universe, is working in ways that we could never see or comprehend.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (NLT). This verse teaches us that faith itself is the evidence for the things we can’t see or observe. We rely on faith to fulfill that need. When we do that, we can walk by faith, submitting our thoughts and actions to the will of God and walking in the purpose He has created us for.
This opens our eyes to the true nature of the world around us and God’s role in it all. It also gives us freedom, helping us to realize that we can live freely as God’s children, knowing that He is in control of all. When we walk with the Lord, we can see clearly and walk a focused, godly path in life!
You can write the Pastor at pastorbilly@findtruelife.com.