Taking That Leap of Faith in Uncertain Times

This morning, I checked my inbox and was treated to a guest devotional by Jon Walker, Please see Daily Hope and then click back to this blog.


Like millions of Christians, I subscribe to Rick Warren’s Daily Hope blog. As usual, today’s message was inspirational and caused me to take a step back and focus on my faith in God's divine power.

In today's devotional, the author uses Peter's lack of trust as an example. I, too, found myself thinking of Peter's dilemma when Jesus beckoned him to walk on the water. As you will recall, Peter was cautious about leaving the safety of the boat. The challenge to leave a safe situation and leap into something unknown gave Peter great cause for concern. I sometimes struggle with making faith based decisions as well. Do you?

The following, from Jon Walker’s inspirational message, really pinpoints the predicament that many of us may experience when faced with a crisis or near crisis.

“It's a paradox of faith: Our first step of faith places us in a position where faith becomes possible. By our obedience, we learn to be faithful. If we refuse to follow, we never learn how to believe. We stay stuck in the shallow end of faith, trusting in ourselves, living by sight and not by faith.”

Today, while reading the news about Rick Warren, I felt inspired to write a blog entry about the struggle of trust that we all, from time to time, experience. As you may know, Rick Warren was recently temporarily blinded due to an unfortunate gardening accident. Please see OC Register for details. How did Rick react to being temporarily blinded by a toxic milky poisonous sap? He became humble and prayed, and he asked others to pray for him as well. Rick placed his trust in God; he knew that God would not forsake him. He was modeling how a Christian should react in a time crisis. 2 Corinthians 5:7 (New International Version)

7We live by faith, not by sight. See Biblegatewaycom

It’s sometimes difficult in the unchartered waters of our life to step out and make a faith based decision to trust God. However, when we do take that leap of faith and trust Him, we feel truly blessed when He, in turn, reaches out and steers us to safety.

Stop and reflect about events in the past when you did reach out and felt that God was walking right there beside you. Surely, as a Christian, you can think of more than one time when you made that leap of faith and could feel His blessings.

Last Sunday, Charles Stanley presented a sermon about the 23rd Psalm and reminded the congregation of God's faithfulness to David and to us. David experienced many blessings and challenges throughout his life, as he walked with God. During many pivotal moments, David called out to God for help, and God responded and blessed him. David wrote the 23rd Psalm to affirm his awareness of God's love and protection. Likewise, when we have asked God for help, He has reached out to us. When we were weary, we could feel that he was carrying the burden for us. We could feel His love and help. With that knowledge in mind, why would we ever doubt that He will be with us now and in the future?

To help the teens and children in your life learn more about the power of faith, please type in Some Biblical Expressions of Faith, Fall Forward in Faith, Object Lessons in Faith, and Holding on with Faith When You are Approaching the Edge in the search box of this bog. You will receive commentary and links to free faith based lesson plans.

May God bless richly bless you.