The Risk of Having Faith In God

Faith is the willingness to risk anything on God.  Jack Hyles

Have you figured out yet that faith means taking risks?  Having faith in God means there will always be risk associated with that faith. When you can’t see, touch or feel Him, faith is based on the unknown.  You don’t know the outcome when you step out in faith.  It’s literally letting go and letting Him take care of the outcome.   

I can remember when I was a child we were in Austin and we went to Bastrop to the public pool and they had low and high diving boards.  I could swim, but I was no Olympic caliber diver.   I was more of a belly flopper.  So for several weeks we went every day to the pool.  I would look up at that high diving board and try to get my courage up to go jump off of it.  Of course when you are young and you have cousins around you, it’s kind of mandatory that you take up their challenge of “I’ll jump if you will”. 

So I finally got up the courage to walk over to it and climb the ladder.  When I cleared the top of the board I wanted to turn around and go back down.  I was trying to talk myself out of jumping.  Wow, that water sure is deep.  Man that’s a long way down.  Everyone is watching me.  After I had my little pep talk with myself I turned around to go back down and there was my cousin looking at me waiting for me to jump.  So I nonchalantly walked over to her, turned back around to face the end of the board and took off running, not looking down and then jumped.  It was like free falling. In fact, it was free falling. Once I was in midair it was like the feeling you get when the roller coaster gets to the top of the incline and your stomach drops out on the decent.  After that first jump I couldn’t wait to get back to the ladder and do it again. 

Faith in God is that very same feeling. When Jesus told Peter to launch out into the deep, Peter had to have faith in Jesus.  He didn’t tell Peter to wade in the shallow waters on the shore.  He told him to launch into the deep.  You aren’t going to find big fish in the shallow water along the shore; they will be in the deep water where you can’t see the bottom. 

God also wants us to anticipate His promises.  When one of my sisters prays she will often thank God for answering her prayer before it is answered.  Faith means letting go of our fear of failure and grabbing hold of God’s promises.  We will never see God’s potential in our life if we are too afraid to believe that He can make it happen. 

The Bible is filled with God’s promises.  If you are struggling with something in your life go to the Bible and read His promises.  God has a plan for you and me.  The first step is to get into God’s presence.  Step out in faith and cooperate with His plan even if it doesn’t make sense and then anticipate that He will do what He says.  God wants to bless you.  He wants to bless you so much that you have nowhere to put the extra blessing except to give it away.  That is what it means to risk having faith in God.  Live life abundantly and anticipate His blessing.

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to be a risk taker when it comes to You and Your purpose in my life.  Please give me the strength to let go and jump off into the deep end.  Give me the faith to know that You are there to catch me.    

       

Scripture: By Faith They Overcame

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.  Hebrews 11:30-40