Faith Lifts~Monday Meme: Faith in Action

Today over at Faith Lifts, Heather is asking:

"How can you physically put your faith in action today? In what circumstance in your life is God calling for you to step out, pick up that stone, and follow Him? How does the above quote impact your struggles in this area?"

with the "above quote" being:

Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active.

Heather draws a wonderful parallel of the story of David and Goliath and speaks of our own Goliaths in our lives that we need to defeat. As I thought on the above quote, the scripture from James 1:22 came to mind... "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." NIV. That scripture goes on to say that if we don't do what it says it's like looking in a mirror, seeing ourselves, but when walking away we forget what we looked like.

I think this is how I move from a passive belief of "God can deliver me, or God can change me" , to an active faith where I am looking to see what God says about that certain "Goliath" which I am trying to slay and then in obediance to what He says walking that out in my life, no matter what I am seeing with my natural eyes. An example of this in my own life right now is my Goliath of reacting to things immediately out of emotions. This is an area I struggle with. I can be very emotional. But that emotion could also be leading me down a wrong or misconstrued path. Emotions are God given, but when a particular one, like anger or rage, or hurt, or jealousy (not that all of those own me, just using examples) starts to color every reaction to a myriad of situations, that starts to become a Goliath. I want to be a person that reacts with grace and mercy and wisdom to situations not be cleaning up a mess that the initial anger that was acted upon got me into. There is nothing wrong with the emotion of anger, but once that emotion comes I need to line it up to what the word says and then instead of "reacting" I can act in the way the word says to. That to me puts my faith into action that God knows better than me.

And as I continue to do what the Word says to my particular situation, I am keeping it continually before me, so that I am not like the person who walks away from the mirror and forgets. Sure, I will fail and have to ask forgiveness and try again. And this is where I need to keep what the Word say before me and not look at the circumstance with my natural eyes, but the more I walk it out, the more natural & immediate it becomes and before I know it God has changed me in that area. My faith has moved out of the passive, I've picked up that rock, and followed God in obediance in that particular area of my life.