Faith by Action

The other morning I read my devotional. The verse for the day was John 13:17 where Jesus washed the disciples' feet and said, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

I read that verse and prayed: "Lord, please help me to put my faith into action." 

Sometimes we know what to do but can get too scared to pursue the "task" (for a lack of a better word). We can find ourselves not taking a leap of faith and not trusting God to guide us in the things He made known to us to do. 

Now...we all know that when we pray prayers that require either patience, or a task, we will be put in situations where we will be able to exercise that gift/fruit so that our spiritual muscles can get stronger...

For that day, the clock was ticking and nothing much was happening until I realized that the "faith-into-action-moment" that day was about my meeting with my friend whom I hadn't seen in a while. I had been praying for her and she had been on my heart to contact. She was the one I'd been thinking: "wow, wouldn't it be so wonderful is she just knew God? If she knew about Jesus? If she was Saved?" it would be so wonderful!"

The words I was going to say to her had been flowing so smoothly in my head, they were on super cloud nine, and of course just in my head it was all perfecto...until it was time to speak. 

I knew I had to do say something because it was pressing on me. At first I told myself: "okay, as long as I say something, at least I tried"...but then I prayed in my head saying: "Lord...please give me what to say...just something...I can't do this on my own.." 

If you have faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.

Moments later, I began talking about Christ. As soon as the conversation began, everything else started flowing and I knew it was all from God. The boldness and confidence of proclaiming the Gospel.

I could've said all these redundant words, but I said enough. I could've put some fear of "you'll dieeeeeeeee!!" but instead said the truth in love and said God's love is true :) I could've done a lot of things on my own...but didn't, and I let God take control. The conversation stopped, but I knew that that wasn't the ending. I knew the significance of waiting and giving the chance of response. 

God showed me the way yesterday and I had to take a leap of faith even though I was nervous. Some may think "that way easy", but it wasn't. I do not intend to go to someone whom the Lord hasn't directed me towards and who I haven't prayed about. If I do, it's all in vain. I know that He can restore all things that I do, but I can potentially drive away someone from the Gospel if i'm not careful, or I can even attempt something that was meant to be attempted by someone who was to come just FIVE minutes down the road. It's not worth it.

Sometimes we may know what to do but we will need to also take a leap of faith. The guidance of the Holy Spirit helps us because His timing will be perfect when He does it His way. Once we are given direction and confirmation on what to do, we have to take the first step. 

A few things we can learn from my day: 

1. God is the one who changes hearts. We often want to take the verse of going out into the nations as a radical standing on the street corner with a sign saying: REPENT OR YOU'RE GOING TO HELL! lol :P Although there is urgency, it isn't right to condemn people. We just need God's direction, leadership, and patience to know that when we've done our part, God will do the rest or use another person/circumstance to fulfill His purpose.

2. When it's God's will, He will supply you with ALL that you need. Remember that at first your emotions will not always coincide with what you need to be doing, but trust in Him to give you peace and He will direct your steps ("In his heart a man plans his course but the Lord directs/establishes His steps"-Proverbs 16:9). He will give you a smooth transition along with the needed resources (in my case, it was the right words to say, and the wisdom to know when to stop talking!). 

3. Live by Hebrews 11:1 which says, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." When we believe in God, we know He does not lie, so He won't say one thing and mean another. By knowing that He is faithful, we are able to trust Him, and to take a leap of faith into what we have yet to see with our natural eyes. 

4. Once we trust Him, it's time to do.  James 2:17 says "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." 

Jesus WASHED the disciples feet. He gave an example. We cannot sit around praying: "heal me heal me, take me somewhere new, or give me knowledge" when we don't even study, or go out and find a job or do ANYYYYTHING...as in...not do AAAANNNYYYTHING.  Seriously. 

Jesus did the ultimate thing. He was a king, the Most High, and yet He lowered Himself. So we have no excuse not to do so ourselves. We do these acts because we have the Holy Spirit, so we know that we are doing this for the Lord and not in vain. We can't just go around doing RANDOM ACTS..that's just called being a "busy body" and it ain't thaaaat cute :) We need to show ourselves witnesses of Christ by performing these acts and living like He did ("For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother"-Matthew 12:50). 


"Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."John 13:17  


We are given knowledge of what we're supposed to do, and by FAITH (of course pray first haha) we do what we have to do. Putting our faith in Christ means we know that He will lead us. Don't let the enemy ever fool you into thinking that if you do what God is asking you to do you will go in the ditches or that you're not good enough.

 "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."John 13:17  

We can sometimes get tested by our faith and we need to show that we TRUST Him. Imagine being in a relationship with someone who doesn't trust you and each time you tell them something they just second guess you or follow you around in an all-black tinted car wearing all black with black sunglasses and pouncing about like a NINJA...I mean seriously. You'd need to catch a break! It would be tiresome and you'd either just leave them alone in their ninja-world or if they're truly worth it, you'd tell them that you need to talk about how to start building trust in baby steps and to see how to strengthen the trust. It's like that with our relationship with God. He wants you to trust Him, and even if it takes a while, He'll guide you. If it means helping you by taking baby steps He will DO it through you, but PLEASE take the first step (remember this is ONLY if it's His Will!! I already spoke about how I wanted God to bless something that wasn't His will in my welcome post and it does not work). 

In the future God will lead you to something greater. As the verse says: "you will be BLESSED if you do them" blessed my child, BLESSED. That's huge! You will be blessed. BUT, in order for you to get to more and more, we need to trust Him more and more, and it has to start with the "little" stuff. When the "heavier" stuff arrives, you will be able to undeniably ATTEST saying: GLORY TO GOD, I know that HE IS ABLE, He did it BEFORE and is able to do it again and again, Amen!" And you will be able to persevere in different things as you will be stronger because of what you have been through.

Amen! 

Oh and friends, don't let anything take you away from your faith in God, He loves you and wants you to be led by in Him!

Once again, keep the faith, and love like you've never loved before.

With love always,

FAITH by Promises