Step of Faith

I love the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Indy must take a step of faith over a chasm. His foot lands on a stone bridge that was there the whole time but, due to an optical illusion, was imperceptible. It could only be discovered by that step of faith.

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is often called the "faith" chapter. In it, the writer gives a string of Old Testament examples of people of faith. He tells us that faith is important because "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11: 6).

I am often bothered by a popular model that presents faith as a magical narcissistic state of mind that we must conjure up, like putting on a Superman suit in the phone booth, that makes us invincible. "If I just believe good enough, I will feel powerful and God will act through me."

But when I study each of the examples in chapter 11, I realize that these believers did not really exhibit that kind of state. For example, in verse 8, Abraham had to leave the security of home for an unknown destination. No auto club trip-tik to guide him on the way. No convenient rest areas with well-marked signage. No highway patrol to make the roads safe from marauders.

“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. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise” (Heb. 11: 8-9).

Even when Abraham arrived, he lived in tents, like a “stranger in a strange land.” He must have wondered how God was going to fulfill His promises. “Here I am, God. Now what?”

Faith is not the absence of worry, fear, anxiety, difficulty, pain, turmoil—and even doubt. Faith is the element that causes us to obey the God we cannot see when what we can see obscures the way. It is the tiny particle of faith that Peter demonstrated when he stepped out on the water and began to walk to Jesus.

Doubt does not mean we do not have faith. It is simply the human part of us looking for security in the material world around us. Faith is the spiritual dynamic that grasps the unseen reality of God and so, moves forward anyway.

What step of faith is God calling you to take today?