Walking in Faith?? Or Not!

A couple weeks ago Pastor's sermon was about 3 types of faith that James references in the Bible. The 3rd type of faith is Dynamic Faith. This is what I like to call "Faith in Action". Sometimes it is a Faith that may require you to do something for someone else, and sometimes it may require you to just say yes to the leading of God. Pastor mentioned the statements "look before you leap" and "he who hesitates looses", both of these statements are true... the hard part is how to know when to apply them. In my life, God does not seem to have the same timing as I do! I guess that is true for all of us! Sometimes, God seems to lead us to do something that makes no sense to us in the natural. It seems like God does not understand what I am dealing with at that time. As you read that statement, I'm sure you thought how silly that sounds. God always knows what we are facing much better than we do, but in our lives we really seem to forget that. How often do we really live by faith? How often do we rely on us instead? Someone recently told me that it is easy for them to have faith that God will supply your needs, but it is much harder to believe that God will supply my needs. To me, that seems to be true many more times than I would like to admit.
I love to look back through my life and wonder what would be different if just one decision I made would have been different. What about those times that God whispered something in my ear that I did not follow through on? You see, when God lays on our hearts to do something that does not seem to make sense, it is very easy to convince ourselves that must not be what He really means, or that He does not mean that for now, or how about this one... "when I am in a better position, I will do that". What have we missed out on? For me, I can share a story both ways. One where I did not follow through, and one where I said "God I will follow even if I don't know how this is possible, and if this is really You, then You will have to supply".
The first situation took place when I was in the fifth grade. I can remember it just as clear as if it were yesterday. You see, I had excepted Christ when I was three, grew up in church; had a Christian family; and knew what was right and wrong, but when God laid it one my heart to share my Faith with a friend at recess... I chose not to do it. Why?? Because I did not want my friends to laugh or make fun of me. You see, I really do not think God knew what He was doing. Less than a week later, I found myself sitting in the back of a church attending that same friends funeral. My prayer is that he really did know Christ, but I really do not know. You see sometimes one decision can change the events of an eternity. What would have changed if I had just obeyed God's leading instead of worrying about what others might think?
The other situation is when we adopted Karter. To us, we knew that God had laid adoption on our hearts, we just didn't know how that would be possible. When we began looking at the cost to adopt, we really saw no way possible... Yet God still seamed to be leading us in that direction. We simply said yes to God and said that if this was really His will, then He would have to provide the resources. Amazingly the Finances began to show up. When it was all said and done, God had provided everything we needed.
Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that we should sit back and let God "prove" Himself to us, but sometimes He just calls us to say yes. Sometimes, we need to jump into action instead of "looking before we leap". I truly believe that if we walk in an unquestioning Faith we will be blessed as much or more than God will use us to bless other people.