Faith is a popular word. People like it. It’s a feel good word. Have faith. Keep the faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
Faith is hope. Faith is trust. Faith is believing. We like these words and ideas. They inspire us.
Obedience is not such a popular word. It’s not found on the inspirational word art at your local Home Goods store. It doesn’t typically motivate or encourage. The connotation is nothing like that of “faith,” and yet, obedience is faith.
When you feel God calling you to let go of something – something you hold dear – it takes an act of obedience, but it is also a step of faith. It’s faith that God has something so much better on the other side of your obedience. It’s hoping, believing, and trusting that God is leading you to something greater.
When God says let go of that relationship, job, unforgiveness, or anxiety He is saying you have to let go, so that you can reach forward and walk into the fullness of something greater than you can even imagine.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21, NIV emphasis my own)
If we could imagine something greater, we would have no problem letting go.
Oftentimes we don’t recognize that what we have is incomparable to what we could have…. if only we took that step of faith – that step of obedience.
What is God calling you into? What does he have ahead of you? What do you need to let go of so you can reach forward with open hands and grasp the unimaginable?
