Some years ago, our family was living in a 2-bedroom rental house in a blue-collar town in Alabama. The main industry in Ft. Payne at the time was sock factories, and we lived behind one of them. We prayed and asked God to give us a place in the country to live, so we could be more self-reliant -- raise livestock, plant a garden, etc. In faith, we bought 22 chicks from the co-op.
So, here we were, with a cardboard box in the living room, with a bustling, cheeping flock of baby chickens. Sure enough, by the time those chicks needed more room, we were on a few acres in the country, with a barn to raise them in. That summer, we planted the biggest garden we'd ever had. I harvested numerous 8-quart baskets of green beans that my husband sold at his produce stand. The chickens began laying big, brown eggs, and we started eating an average of 18 eggs a day! I worried that it would up my cholesterol, but I found out a wonderful thing -- free-range eggs don't raise your cholesterol. In fact, when we were all eating -- on average -- three eggs apiece each day, my cholesterol was the lowest it's ever been, because I quit eating the factory-farm, store-bought eggs altogether.
More recently, we were expecting a large sum of money to come in our bank account. We knew it was coming, but we did not know when. We also knew we would soon have to move out of the cabin where we had been living for over a year. In faith, I began methodically cleaning and organizing each room of the house. First I cleaned up and emptied out the front and back porches, because the dirt and leaves accumulated on the porches tended to get tracked into the house when people came and went.
Front porch -- clean.
Back porch -- clean.
Then, bedroom....and the closet (stuffed to the brim with stuff, both good and bad, that needed sorting).
Trips to the dump, trips to Goodwill, and gradually the house was readied for our departure.
In both cases, we did not have anything in hand yet, but we took steps to prepare. We acted in faith, believing that God was leading us in a certain direction and acting accordingly.
I saw the significance of the principle of faith recently when I was reading in Exodus about the Hebrews leaving their captivity in Egypt. God warned them....He gave them the feast of Passover, with all its symbolism. They were to take a lamb into their house and keep it alive for a number of days, then butcher it and cook it whole over a fire. Everyone in the house was supposed to eat the lamb and the accompanying herbs with unleavened bred -- standing on their feet with their staff in their hand and their shoes and coats on, as if prepared for a journey.
Hmmm.... It was a clue. The children of Israel were about to be drop-kicked out of Egypt. God warned them, with all the symbols of the meal that night. Next day, they were EJECTED from the land without even the time to let their bread rise.
When God gives us direction, we are supposed to act on it. Faith is the coin of the realm in the Kingdom of God. Without it, you get nothing.
James writes in his epistle:
Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17)
Faith without works is dead, in the same way that a garden hose that has no water coming out of one end is empty, or a bull that won't breed cows is not a bull. The natural outcome of true faith is action.
Faith = Action
When Noah came out of the ark with just a handful of the creatures that once populated the earth, he built an altar and sacrificed some of those animals. That seems counter-intuitive. God preserved the life of the animals, along with Noah's family....and then Noah kills some of those same animals? Yet, according to scripture, "... the LORD smelled a sweet smell; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake..."
Noah expressed faith in God. He trusted God to provide for him and his family and all the animals he'd been caring for so long. He acknowledged his indebtedness to God Almighty, and his faith that life would once again flourish on the planet.
Abraham offered something much more precious when he obeyed God's command to offer up his only son as a sacrifice. God wasn't being mean. He wanted to see if this man was willing to do the very thing that God himself was willing to do -- offer his only son.
2nd Chronicles 16:9 says:
For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. (NASB)
God seeks those who trust him. That's all....just trust him. If God is showing you something today, act on it! Step out in faith and do what you believe he is leading you to do. I am of the opinion that your Lord is much more pleased with someone who tries and fails than someone who never tries at all.
So, here we were, with a cardboard box in the living room, with a bustling, cheeping flock of baby chickens. Sure enough, by the time those chicks needed more room, we were on a few acres in the country, with a barn to raise them in. That summer, we planted the biggest garden we'd ever had. I harvested numerous 8-quart baskets of green beans that my husband sold at his produce stand. The chickens began laying big, brown eggs, and we started eating an average of 18 eggs a day! I worried that it would up my cholesterol, but I found out a wonderful thing -- free-range eggs don't raise your cholesterol. In fact, when we were all eating -- on average -- three eggs apiece each day, my cholesterol was the lowest it's ever been, because I quit eating the factory-farm, store-bought eggs altogether.
More recently, we were expecting a large sum of money to come in our bank account. We knew it was coming, but we did not know when. We also knew we would soon have to move out of the cabin where we had been living for over a year. In faith, I began methodically cleaning and organizing each room of the house. First I cleaned up and emptied out the front and back porches, because the dirt and leaves accumulated on the porches tended to get tracked into the house when people came and went.
Front porch -- clean.
Back porch -- clean.
Then, bedroom....and the closet (stuffed to the brim with stuff, both good and bad, that needed sorting).
Trips to the dump, trips to Goodwill, and gradually the house was readied for our departure.
In both cases, we did not have anything in hand yet, but we took steps to prepare. We acted in faith, believing that God was leading us in a certain direction and acting accordingly.
I saw the significance of the principle of faith recently when I was reading in Exodus about the Hebrews leaving their captivity in Egypt. God warned them....He gave them the feast of Passover, with all its symbolism. They were to take a lamb into their house and keep it alive for a number of days, then butcher it and cook it whole over a fire. Everyone in the house was supposed to eat the lamb and the accompanying herbs with unleavened bred -- standing on their feet with their staff in their hand and their shoes and coats on, as if prepared for a journey.
Hmmm.... It was a clue. The children of Israel were about to be drop-kicked out of Egypt. God warned them, with all the symbols of the meal that night. Next day, they were EJECTED from the land without even the time to let their bread rise.
When God gives us direction, we are supposed to act on it. Faith is the coin of the realm in the Kingdom of God. Without it, you get nothing.
James writes in his epistle:
Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17)
Faith without works is dead, in the same way that a garden hose that has no water coming out of one end is empty, or a bull that won't breed cows is not a bull. The natural outcome of true faith is action.
Faith = Action
When Noah came out of the ark with just a handful of the creatures that once populated the earth, he built an altar and sacrificed some of those animals. That seems counter-intuitive. God preserved the life of the animals, along with Noah's family....and then Noah kills some of those same animals? Yet, according to scripture, "... the LORD smelled a sweet smell; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake..."
Noah expressed faith in God. He trusted God to provide for him and his family and all the animals he'd been caring for so long. He acknowledged his indebtedness to God Almighty, and his faith that life would once again flourish on the planet.
Abraham offered something much more precious when he obeyed God's command to offer up his only son as a sacrifice. God wasn't being mean. He wanted to see if this man was willing to do the very thing that God himself was willing to do -- offer his only son.
2nd Chronicles 16:9 says:
For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. (NASB)
God seeks those who trust him. That's all....just trust him. If God is showing you something today, act on it! Step out in faith and do what you believe he is leading you to do. I am of the opinion that your Lord is much more pleased with someone who tries and fails than someone who never tries at all.