Living By Faith

My righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.

Hebrews 10:38

For most of my life, I was afraid to step out in any direction that I was not sure would bring me 100 percent success. Failure was too painful for me. Failure in front of others? No, thank you!

In college, I did not want to play flag football unless I played a position where I didn’t have to touch the ball! I was mortified by the thought that I might drop it. They made me the ineligible guard on offense. Now that may sound awful to you, but I liked the way it sounded—ineligible! On defense, grabbing for the flags ended up being my cup of tea. No offense for me.

I also loved to sing and was part of a huge choir that did a Christmas cantata each year. One year I was offered Mary’s role. I went to all the practices, but I backed out the day before the performance because I was fearful I would fail. We all sang Mary’s part in unison. As much as I was relieved not to be singing a solo, I was embarrassed that I had let down both the choir and the director.

Back then I thought it was too scary to live by faith. Living by faith requires movement, and I would chronically stall. As a result, I missed out on some of God’s blessings and opportunities.

Fortunately, as I grew up and fell more in love with Christ, I started to take baby steps to do what God said in His Word as He placed situations before me. God always came through, and my faith journey had begun.

God tells us to live by faith—moving, growing, living faith—“no ifs, ands, or buts about it,” as we say in the South! It’s only when we live by faith that we see God changing us. It is clear from today’s verse that there is only one direction in which we are to go. His direction—the direction of faith—is the right one every time.

Live by faith. God always comes through! The Bible is full of stories of many faithful heroes who moved when God prompted, even though what was on the other side was not visible.