Faith is an interesting facet of our being. It calls us to believe in something we cannot see. As a child, this was such a difficult concept for me to wrap my mind around. I couldn’t grasp the idea of it. One lady who cared for me and was concerned when I was seeking the Lord explained to me that faith was like jumping off the trampoline knowing that God would catch you on the way down. It was trusting he wouldn’t let you hit the ground, but he would catch you in the middle of your fall.

Fear is also a component of who we are. Does anyone truly live on this earth a single day without fear or worry? Even children who, if they are fortunate, are shielded from the pains of this world experience fear. The dark, monsters, insects, snakes, and the boogie man were some of my childhood fears. As I grew older and grew in grace, those fears changed, but nonetheless were rooted in things not seen. Fear calls us to believe in something we cannot see, just like faith. Fear attempts to seize our hearts in chains of doubt and weakness. 

For the born-again believer, faith still isn’t easy. As if a muscle that cannot be seen in our fleshly bodies, it must spend time at the gym. Our faith needs to lift weights, run a few miles, hydrate…. Through the workout, we sweat under the pressure. Our muscles become sore after exercising, because new tissues are developing. We are tempted to stay on the couch where it’s comfortable instead of returning day after day. Our adversary says “one extra day of rest surely won’t make that big of a difference…” and we must choose to keep trying.  The result is rewarding: routines and actions that used to be challenging or cause pain for us are elementary. Through our weakness, Jesus makes us strong. 

Faith is not easy. Simple, but not easy. Trusting God to take care of every situation and releasing control is challenging. Faith is like placing our feet in the middle of a cloud of unknown circumstances while trusting there will be a rock in the midst of it on which we can stand. Visibly it’s just a cloud, just particles of condensation gathered together. With our fleshly senses, we cannot tell whether there is something of substance within it or not. The faith route calls us to trust that Jesus, the Rock of our salvation, is there. He calls us to stand in the midst of the unknown, clinging to Him for direction and security.

With each new situation in life, we are faced with two options: faith or fear. Will we choose to believe that our Creator has already conquered this giant we are facing? Or will we stand back doubting, wading in the shallow end afraid of taking the next step?

This post was inspired by the Casting Crowns song “What If I Gave Everything” Listen to it here.