Stepping Out

"The just shall live by faith" is repeated several times in the Scriptures. To live by faith means that we do not live primarily by what we see, or how we feel, but we live by what God says, and what He has promised. We need to live by this faith everyday, and in every circumstance. Heb. 11:6 tells us that without this faith we cannot please God. Living by faith is the only way to please God in our lives. Following are 3 stories from the Bible that illustrate our need for faith. The first one is the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites. With the Sea in front of them, and the Egyptian army behind them, the people were afraid. Moses says, "Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." Fear will never get us across the obstacles in our lives, it will always drive us backwards. The people were crying, but God said to them to stop crying, and to move forward. The great miracle of the water dividing happened when Moses lifted up his rod toward the Sea in faith. By faith they crossed over the Sea and saw the destruction of their enemies. Later in the time of Joshua, Israel needed another miracle in order to cross into the Promised Land. The people were to watch the ark and follow it, because they had not passed that way before. The priests were to stand in the Jordan, and as they did, the water stopped flowing, and they walked on dry ground across the Jordan River. This crossing represents our crossing into the promises of God and the fulness of God in our lives. We need a miracle every time we move forward into our promised land. We need to move in faith for each step forward, for we are moving into unknown territory. Then, in the New Testament, we read of Peter accepting Jesus' invitation to walk on the water. Peter made the decision to step out onto the water, and found the reality of the supernatural. We too will find the supernatural power of God when we step out in faith on the promises of God. When fear entered into Peter, he again had to fix his eyes on Jesus in order to walk in the supernatural. "But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out saying, 'Lord, save me!' " The circumstances are irrelevant to faith. Walking by faith takes us across the troubled sea. We can cross our Red Sea, we can enter into our Promised Land, and we can walk on the water of the supernatural, as we walk by faith, and not by sight.