Live by Faith

I want to invite you to think about your life and where you live by faith. What I mean by living by faith is where do you believe God is working in your life. Many areas of our life are under our control. We make the decisions of what to do and go where we think we can get ourselves to go. We rely only on ourselves.
When we live by faith, we are going as far as we can go with ourselves and then trusting God will take us the rest of the way. We believe, by faith, that God will do more in our lives then we can do ourselves. And this is not wishful thinking or even hoping God will work, but it is more like expecting or knowing God will work.
What does this look like? Well, United Methodists have a membership pledge they make as they join the church and they renew those vows each time new members join. So I took the five pieces of that pledge and asked what it might look like to live by faith in those areas. The pledge says a United Methodist will be faithful in their prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.
Prayers - Is your prayer life a place of faith? You know praying is not about you and yet you feel called to be praying specifically for others.
Presence - Maybe just coming to worship is an act of faith for you right now. You are not really sure about this church thing, but you are living by faith that if you show up to church God might work in your life.
Gifts - Do you give faithfully to others? When you look at your checkbook is your faith represented there?
Service - Are you involved in a ministry that you believe God is working in?
Witness - Is your life as a whole an example of living faith? Or are you pretty much in control of everything allowing little room for God to work?
I have felt challenged in my life to be sure that I am giving my all, but also living by faith that God will do more than I ever could. I hope you will look for the ways you are already living by faith and praise God for his work there. Also, look for an area you might need to add some faith to what you are doing.
When we live by faith, God's light shines through us and God will do amazing things.