When Faith is True Faith

Yesterday my mom underwent her first chemotherapy treatment to fight against breast cancer. As I sat in the room with her, the thought crossed my mind, "Maybe faith isn't even really faith until life isn't going the way we planned and we still choose to believe and trust."

The more I've thought about that, the more I think perhaps people tend to consider faith to be just a feeling. We can say we have faith but we don't really know what faith is until life isn't going our way. That's when we learn what faith looks and feels like. Without those difficult times, would we ever really need faith? When we can walk through a difficult situation, one that may even feel hopeless, and we're still able to trust that God is in control and has good plans for us and move forward accordingly, that's true faith. 

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

That verse doesn't say, "We think or feel by faith." It says, "We walk by faith." That explains that faith is an action, or something we do. The verse also means that we must let our trust in God lead us, instead of just trusting what we see with our eyes or the feelings we have. The way things appear isn't always true and our feelings aren't trustworthy. Things can seem desperate and we can feel entirely alone, but when we use our faith to move forward, instead of focusing on our circumstances or emotions, we are walking by faith.

Life is tough, for Christians and non-Christians alike. Being a Christian doesn't remove the difficulties of life. When we walk by faith, we can walk through the hard times of life without fear, depending on our Heavenly Father to guide us. Not only does our faith please God and inspire others, it also allows us to experience God's presence in ways we couldn't otherwise. 

I pray that when our lives seem to fall apart, we will be able to walk by faith, not by sight. May we begin looking at life's difficult times as opportunities to exercise our faith and experience God in new, fresh ways.