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How can you physically put your faith in action today? In what circumstance in your life is God calling for you to step out, pick up that stone, and follow Him? How does the above quote impact your struggles in this area?
Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active.
Heather stumped me tonight.
Since I live in the Pacific Time zone, I always get my posts up at night to catch all you early birds with your morning coffee. So tonight I came home from Bible Study and made my way to my computer to check in for tomorrow’s topic. I read Heather’s post. It was great. But then I sat there, waiting for my ideas to gel and nothing happened. And I mean nothing.
No great challenges or circumstances came to mind.
My days are full and I collapse in bed each night, weary and begging for more hours before my son wakes me up for another marathon of a day. But emotionally and spiritually I seem to be in a green valley, lazily resting by calm cool waters. And oh it is so nice. And I have needed this respite for so long.
And now that I have this beautiful break from turmoil – a peaceful calm rests over me. Although you would never guess it if you saw me stressing out during my day, trying to get everything done, I am really at peace under all the daily stress of living.
So when I read Heather’s question I was stumped.
No Goliaths showed up in my mind. I didn’t sense God highlighting any huge issue for me to face. There were no calls to foreign mission fields, no leaps of faith to take. No specific person or situation came to mind. I didn’t sense any particular circumstance where God was calling me to step out in faith.
“This can’t be! There has to be something!” I panicked. “First of all, we all know I am very far from perfect. I have got lots of work to do. And second – I need to write a post! I mean come on God – don’t leave me here without a post!”
So I went upstairs and lay very still on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, asking and waiting. “God how can I, as an exhausted but content mom, whose life is consumed by the minutiae of parenting, step out in faith today?”
And then it hit. And I felt almost silly for not realizing it sooner.
God is calling me to live out a life of faith in the details.
Yes, there will inevitably be huge hurdles ahead. My faith will be challenged and rocked, my heart torn apart. But for this moment, I am to model faith for my son and my family daily, from morning till night, no matter what the day includes. (Now maybe that is a huge thing!)
I must choose to actively live out my faith in the hidden hurdles that challenge me before I even see them coming – when I am tempted to argue with my husband instead of offering grace, when I am weary and ready to grumble, when I am lazy and don’t bother to pray, when I am too busy and I miss my child’s request to play with him, when I am angry and I lose my temper…
A life of faith is tested in many ways and the defining moments are not always where we expect them to be. We may rise to meet a huge Goliath and then stumble on our way home, revealing a faithless heart.
As mothers, we are tested every second it seems. Many days I have lost my patience before I even get out of the house. And yet little, impressionable souls watch and learn from us! We are modeling an active faith for them.
Blessed by this insight, I got up and made my way downstairs to my laptop, realizing that I may not have one battle ahead of me tomorrow, but many. I will need to gather many stones for my slingshot and then walk forward, alert and ready to fight each temptation that gets ready to take down my faith.
And these battles matter, not only for me, but also for my child who is watching and taking notes.
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Erna says
Janice, I appreciated your thoughts on tackling the small things we face each day. If we put all those little things into a pile, I think we’d be amazed at how big the battle truly has been. :0)
Barb says
I should have known Heather came up with this question. She’s good at making us think, isn’t she? 🙂
I love your approach to this. It’s so true that it’s not necessary to do something big to impress God – He loves us and appreciates every single small thing we do, too, especially when we’re walking the walk and teaching those around us by our example. Sometimes I think the small things we do every day speak louder than that one big awesome impressive thing we may do once in a lifetime.
Robin says
You’ve answered the life long question I’ve had. It always seems that you need to do something great for God when actually living life that sets an example is a great start for someone who feels they don’t have much to give. Thank you!
Heather says
Ha! I stumped you! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this! I can totally relate with Goliath being in the mundane things as well in those huge issues.
🙂
sonja brooks says
I like what you said
God is calling me to live out a life of faith in the details.
God he wants to see the character of a person and not the look of a person, and bay doing as you say,,,,,,,it is your character that God sees………..Good Post……….sonja
CyberCelt says
Topped by to visit for C&C Monday. Food for faith for sure. God bless..
Tammy says
Wonderful and beautifully written post! And you’re so exactly right! Sometimes the biggest challenge is living out our faith daily in the everyday things…and even more so, when we were moms with young children, watching to see how we do it.
It doesn’t mean we have to be perfect…it means we have to rely on the One Who is…part of the faith-walk.
I loved this post…and how you showed that our Golliaths are often in the mundane…beautiful!
Rena says
Very well said. Putting our faith into action has been on my mind as well, only in a different way..more like, putting our words into action for me. God is up to something, stirring His daughters and sons up with the same messages. So glad you are taking the time to listen cause this is good stuff!
lrlwreath says
Love your post. Yesterday Sunday evening, we discussed how your every day routine can be offered to God as your form of worship. Washing dishes, doing laundry, how you recact to situations all can be forms of worship. And I think this week I am going to conentrate on that. Great post.