Do You Walk by Faith

Or Engulfed in Fear?

Do you ever feel particularly challenged?  Does your life sometimes take on the unwanted dimension of a completely overwhelming sensation?  Do you wonder which way to turn and what action to take?  You are not alone.  This experience happens to each of us along the path of life.  What is critical is how you function during a time you feel most unable to function.

Focus, Focus, Focus!

Check the focus of your heart.  If your heart’s attention is riveted to the circumstance you are experiencing to the point that you are ruminating with people about it, stop.  Just stop.  Find a quiet place in your spirit while breathing in and out slowly.  The deep breathing creates a physiological shift in your body and literally calms you and brings you to a place of greater clarity.  The beauty of this exercise is that you can do it in a crowded room or all alone.  Once you are calmer in the natural it is easier to realign yourself spiritually.

The next step is to focus on the Lord.  Reach out to Him as He is with you hearing your every heart cry.  It is always a heart issue after all.  When fear seeps in faith is diminished. 

It does not matter how ‘strong’ you are or how long you have been a Christian fear is always lurking in the shadows.  It is faith that drives fear out and implodes its power to dominate.  The thing about faith is that it requires believing in what you cannot readily see before your eyes.

What Do You Really Believe?

Faith unequivocally knows that Jesus is Who He says He is and that He can do what He says He can.    This is very easy to say but when a crisis hits how well do you walk out your faith?  I certainly do not mean this question as a condemnation on any level.

Having walked through cancer several times, being told I would be dead in a week, being told I would never walk again, enduring years of physical therapy from injuries sustained in an accident and facing many other challenges in my life I know all too well how essential it is to maintain faith in your heart.  Is it easy?  Not always.

Choose Faith!

What I have found is that depending on how you walk through something sets the stage for the next time you are met with a challenge.  Faith builds with each experience if you allow it.

  In many of the healing stories in the Bible Jesus tells the person that their faith has made them whole.

Even in the parable of the palsied man being lowered through the roof for a healing touch from the Lord, Jesus says that the faith of the man’s friends opened the way to his healing.  Faith is as important as breathing for a follower of Christ.  It is life giving.  It is life nourishing.  Fear cannot exist in the face of uncompromising faith!

Encourage yourself with the Bible faith stories this week and renew the spirit of faith in yourself.  Remember, without faith it is impossible to please God.  Your faith in Him opens the door for Him to operate through that faith in your life. Create your own personal faith story marked with the countless times He brought you through situations you may have thought at the time to be insurmountable.

Whatever He has done in the past, whatever He has brought you through He can and will do again.  He can do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you can think or imagine.  It is your choice:  faith or fear? Be bold enough in the power of the Holy Spirit to walk by faith and not by sight each and every day from this day forward!

 Quotes to Ponder This Week

“Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.”  ~Jesus, Matthew 9:22

“Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to this fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.  And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  ~Matthew 21:21-22

“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  ~Jesus, Matthew 28:20

 “According to your faith let it be to you.”  ~Jesus, Matthew 9:29

“Go your way; your faith has made you well.” ~Jesus, Mark 10:52

 “Do not be afraid; only believe.”  ~Jesus, Mark 5:36

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”  ~Jesus, Mark 11:24

“So when He saw their faith, He said to him…”I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”  ~Jesus, Luke 5:20

 Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant: “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”  ~Jesus, Luke 7:9

“Your faith has saved you, Go in peace.” ~Jesus, Luke 7:50

“Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”  ~Jesus Luke 18:42

“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.  ~1 Corinthians 16:13

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  ~Hebrews 11:1

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believer that He  is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  ~Hebrews 11:6

A Prayer Request

Thank you for your continued faithfulness to pray. Please keep all who serve our country, our servicemen and women and their families in prayer for salvation and safety. They are our front-line on the battlefield, let us be their front-line in the spirit. Also, let us cover all who have come home wounded that they and their families will receive the kindness, help and support they need to go forward in their lives.

God bless all our diplomatic and military personnel and their families. May the Lord keep them safe. Pray for all throughout the world for hedges of protection against radical Muslim extremists and all forms of terrorism. We have long prayed for spiritual victory over radical Islam in Esther’s Warriors Ministry. We now see the reality of this threat come to the forefront in this time in world history.

Please pray for all in authority over us, for the full truth to come forth concerning Benghazi and for safety in Israel. May God richly bless the United States of America, bring to light every single crooked place and keep her safe. May we may arise united once again as One Nation Under God in this auspicious season in our country’s history.

We continue to pray for truth to prevail as we saturate this country in prayer and stand for all that is right in America and for all of us who call ourselves American. These are treacherous times and now more than ever we must maintain our walk. Fail not in this hour.

Please Join Me in Prayer

Father we thank You that You hear our every heart cry.  Teach us to walk in the faith of our spiritual forefathers.  Teach us to look neither to the left nor to the right but to keep our hearts fixed on You and You alone for You are the God that heals.  Thank You, Jesus, that You show us in Your Word that by faith many are healed.  Help us to strengthen our faith to walk out Your destiny for us ‘for such a time as this.’  Thank You, Holy Spirit, that You bring conviction to guide us to the place of unwavering faith.  We pray this in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen and amen.