Faith Walking
Faith is a walk.
Faith is a journey.
One foot in front of the other, with intention pointed in the direction of personally knowing God.
Where are you on your journey? Are you at a stand still? Are you a Sunday stroller? Or would you say you’re an “all in” faith walker?
My friend Shawna Keller (Relay of Truth) says that faith is a muscle we need to exercise and build. From my experience, she’s right. What do physical exercise and faith exercise have in common? If you’re not committed to it, you’re not going to experience much of a difference in your life.
Sure, a Sunday stroll is nice and pleasant. But a true, life changing faith walk takes devotion, practice, and consistency. It takes being proactive in learning what God’s Word says, what His promises are, and talking with Him regularly. It takes surrendering ‘MY WAY’ to seeking and embracing HIS WAY.
When your heart, mind and soul undergo a transformation from, “I believe in God”….to, “I BELIEVE GOD!!!!”…Well, that’s when overwhelming understanding floods in. In the absence of that one little ‘in’ word, faith is activated at a whole new level. Because God’s way is walking “by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), you no longer look at things the same as you once did. You’re suddenly able to see how sedentary your faith once was!
During the Covid-19 isolation of our world, it has been easier to be sedentary and harder to get motivated to exercise. I’m one of those women raising my hand admitting, “That’s ME!” when I see funny photos scrolling on social media of what this ‘wait’ has done to our weight.
Here’s one of my faves — A lumpy giraffe, looking like Staypuff Marshmallow Man from the 80’s Ghostbuster movie!
I know the need for quarantine is serious, but a sense of humor really is good medicine to help us get through it. I’ve been feeling like that Staypuff giraffe after the many weeks of lockdown with bad eating habits, so I’ve started a new GOOD habit with my neighbor and close friend, Tina. We’ve started doing a 3-mile daily power walk.
Tina, like me, has also been intentionally bringing Faith Forward in her life. So, we’ve had lots of faith things to talk about during our walks. Stories we’ve been learning from in the Bible, on-line sermons and other resources we’ve been informed or inspired by, what’s going on in our world right now and how it ties to what the Bible says. We’ve had so much to talk about, we’re amazed at how fast our 3 miles of exercise seems to fly by!
Tina started calling this new routine our “Faith Walk” because of all the ground we cover in our faith talks while walking. One day, a happy little coincidence turned into stepping up (pun!) our power walk. We both had prayer requests from friends and family on our minds, and as that topic floated to the surface of our conversation an idea occurred to me.
As we neared a neighborhood street corner stop sign headed back towards our homes, I said, “Hey! Why don’t we use the rest of this walk to actually pray together for all of the prayer requests we’re thinking about?”
From that day on, we’ve used that stop sign marker as our literal stopping point to shift gears into prayer time during the course of our walk. It’s hard to put into words just how comforting and gratifying it is to pray aloud for others with a prayer partner. It has put a new level of POWER in our faith walking!
Do you have someone you can begin a “Faith Walking” habit with? If no one comes to mind, pray about who might be a good walking partner to begin building your faith muscle with. Here are some examples of things my friend and I pray about during our walks:
Friends and family who have asked for special prayers.
People who are sick, those who have lost jobs, people who have lost loved ones.
People trying to rebuild after storm and tornado devastation.
Marriages or families going through struggles.
Our community, nation and world leaders. For God’s hand of guidance and direction.
People who don’t know the Lord. If we know of specific people, we pray for their salvation.
I LOVE this new FAITH FORWARD habit my friend and I “stumbled upon”, and I hope it gives you a practical way to step up your faith, too.
Don’t have a nearby friend you can start “Faith Walking” with right now? You can never go wrong with just you and Jesus! Listen to worship music in your headphones while you walk. Find faith-building podcasts and sermons to pour into yourself. And don’t forget to spend some of your walking time in PRAYER!
One step at a time, one block at a time, one mile at a time, faith muscle and momentum will start to build.
Ready? Set. Let’s start FAITH WALKING!
reSOURCEs:
“Faith Walker” Spotify Playlist of songs for walking
Faith Life Church Podcast
Relay of Truth Podcast bible study episodes
Free Audio Bible app