TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH
Congratulations! We made it! 2023 is drawing to a close. 2024 is round the corner. While we ponder what lies ahead, many of us are perhaps focused on improving something specific in our life or ministry. And that’s where the old New Year’s resolutions come in. And while I commend you for making real goals for the coming year in earnest, “Be more compassionate,” “eat healthier,” “recycle more”, “walk more”, etc, there’s a significant goal that I believe God wants you and I to set for the coming year: to live by faith more.
I’m not suggesting you haven’t been living by faith: after all, you’re come this far by faith; leaning on the Lord. But as we look ahead, even in the midst of change and uncertainty beckoning we are going to need to live by faith more.
We are facing crisis on top of crisis. Whether as a result of the pandemic or recent wars, our lives and economies are being turned upside. Henry Kissinger who passed away recently was reputed to have said: “there cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full”.
God wants you and I to thrive in the midst of Crises, Uncertainty and Change.
What does it mean to live by faith? I believe it simply means to obey God’s immediate commandment whilst not knowing the where, why or what of the outcome. To do God’s will here and now, quietly leaving the results to Him. Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith, then, consists of actions based on an assurance of what is not seen. Spurgeon called this concept of ‘not knowing’ “the very masterpiece of faith.”
In Hebrews 11:8, we read that “by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went”, even though he did not know where he was going or that he was going to receive the as yet unknown land “as an inheritance”. Abraham did not possess any information about the place God had called him to. No maps, no guides to the best bed and breakfasts, the best tours to take, etc.
When God calls us to the adventure of faith, He does not furnish a road-map in advance. We have a sinking feeling of having stepped out on nothing, but then God is always doing wonderful things with nothing. “He hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7), and “calls those things which are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17).
When we do not know where, why, or what, our faith is helped when we focus on the bigger picture – with expectation and hope. Fix your eyes on things unseen, not on things seen. Remember that the security of your salvation, your spiritual growth, and eternal reward in heaven are more important than material things. Don’t get too fussed about little disagreements and issues going on in your family, church or work. Don’t look to the past and long for it. God has made you new, look forward to the new things God has in store for you in 2024.
As we live in these times of immense change and uncertainty, and a culture that seeks to discourage, defeat, and diminish our hope, there is an invitation for us as God’s ministers of hope to model something that is otherworldly, a countercultural reality that comes from our Father’s Kingdom. The life of faith. Faith is fake when it’s not accompanied by obedience. Faith is perfected (or proved genuine) by works.
May Christ’s abounding presence be with you and your family this Christmas, and cause you to achieve greater things as you live by faith more in the coming year, and through all the changing seasons of your life. Amen.
Your brother
Victor Jibuike