WALKING BY FAITH!
So are you one of those who does what God says even if you don’t understand it. Can loving the unlovely be walking by faith? Can going out of your way mean walking by faith? Can going the extra mile mean walking by faith? Can you say walking by faith is eating a meal where the hosts lifts the roast out of the pot with his dirty hands and plops it into a dish and announces dinner is served on a table that had remnants of earlier meals still evident and you ate the meal anyway? Can you say that trusting in the Lord in all things keeps you walking by faith? If you can say yes to all of the above; you are walking by faith!

My niece Leslie was always a serious little girl. When she was around 8 or 9, she received a red umbrella for Christmas. I never saw her so excited as she was with that umbrella. After Christmas vacation and with thoughts of school starting the next day - she prayed that it would rain.....The next morning it rained..... she begged her mom to let her carry her umbrella. That evening, Leslie prayed again that it would rain......the next morning it rained.....that night she prayed again.....and again the next morning it rained..... Wednesday night Laura, her little sister came to her mom very unhappy and said; "Mom, don’t let Leslie pray tonight - because I am tired of the rain and I want to play outside during recess". Talk about Faith! Even though they were very young girls with faith as a grain of a mustard seed they believed God would hear and answer their prayers no matter what.....Well, my sister Joetta did ask Leslie not to pray for rain that night so that Laura could play out doors during recess....You know what? It didn’t rain the next day!

Shortly after my brother-in-law Clancy accepted the Lord, he couldn’t get enough of God’s word. He and my sister Janice had a scripture box on their dining room table and would look at a scripture often. One evening Clancy received a call from a close friend from highschool who lived out of town. His 14 year old daughter ran away from home. He thought she might be headed for Hollywood. He asked Clancy to go and see if he could find her! A little bewildered on how anyone could just go to Hollywood and find someone, Clancy said he would give it a try. As he prepared to leave he pulled a scripture from the box. It read; "Jesus looked at them and said; With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible". After they prayed Clancy left for Hollywood. He decided he would start at Hollywood & Vine because that name was familiar to him. He pulled into a parking lot, got out and stood on the corner of Hollywood & Vine. He stood wondering which way to turn when he saw this girl across the street from where he was standing. She was his friends daughter! His faith was new, the size of a grain of a mustard seed!.....

"If you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it shall move and nothing shall be impossible to you"; Matthew 17:20b. Do you remember when your faith was new and fresh and God amazed you through His work in you?

"Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight"; 2 Corinthians 5:5-7. We can walk by faith because this world is not our home, we are just passing through. The Holy Spirit that dwells within us enables us to walk the way of the Master.

Let’s become like those that Paul talks about in Romans 10:15b; "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of ‘good news’". Let the Spirit of the Lord be our guide as we walk all the way home through faith which "comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ"; Romans 10:17. Walking in faith is a way of life, not just a walk in the park! Jane Ann