During our men’s Bible study on Monday nights we try to “make real” the stuff we’re learning, so it isn’t just head-knowledge, but gets into our feet, thus into our lives. In doing this we share from our own personal lives and are encouraged to learn that other men are facing some of the questions we each seem to have.

Sometimes “the light goes on” and Epiphany happens, but much of the time the questions pile up without answer and we have to just move on, waiting for later. People aren’t very good at this kind of waiting. We’re impatient. If we don’t get a quick fix we tend to leave the issue, because the frustration is worse than just not knowing.

Faith, you see, is a constant learning issue.

Over the years, two statements about Faith have developed and seem to be deeply ingrained into not only our culture, but also our spiritual walk. “Blind faith,” and “Leap of faith.”

Is faith really blind? Can it be? Would you really jump off a cliff to “prove” you believed? I think not.

What I think God wants from us, and what I know the Bible does for us as we read, is to develop our faith. Working together they take the “seed of faith” we are born with and nurture it and feed it and grow it. This, then, develops in us not a “blind” faith, but a CONFIDENT faith! A faith that trusts in God Almighty, AS the Almighty, and exercises those muscles of faith into maturity, strength, endurance, and everything else we need for a dynamic relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfector of our faith!

If one is really in tune with how and where Jesus is leading, then one doesn’t need to take any “leaps of faith into the unknown,” because one will KNOW what one is to do. This is the essence of relationship, isn’t it? This is the benefit of actually being IN Christ; recognizing not only Him, but where He is and what He is doing and what He is asking.

I suppose one could say “I’m willing to take this leap, because I trust in God and know that He will save me.” Fine. But I think it is much healthier to say “I’m doing such and such because God has spoken to me.”

There’s an old joke about a guy trying to walk on water, after watching Jesus do it, and immediately sinking. An angel says to another angel, “Should we tell him where the rocks are?” Ok, it’s not a very funny joke, but it does make a point. Jesus KNOWS where the rocks are! So we can choose to run and sink on our own, or to wait for Him to reveal to us “the path.”
Choose faith, but develop Confident faith, and the frustrations will minimize…