Walk by Faith
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Colossians 2:6
The dictionary states that faith is “belief, trust, fidelity, or loyalty to a creed or religion.” If true Christianity is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, belief, trust and loyalty are certainly involved but not to a creed or religion but instead to a Person. Faith is indeed believing – simply taking God at His Word and acting upon it. It involves the assent of the mind to truth of which we may not have an immediate conception. It sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible. Faith is the link to every promise of God.
John 1:12 states: But as many as RECEIVED Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that BELIEVE on His name. We are born again by faith.
Our text states: As ye have therefore RECEIVED Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk (live) in Him. We are to live daily by faith.
There was a day, when recognizing our utter need as sinners, that we trusted Christ and RECEIVED life – eternal life. We are to walk daily in the same way — in utter need and reliance on Him. For we walk by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). We were justified by faith, but it is God’s will that we daily live by faith — the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).
The love of God is an action that has come to us in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ. Through Christ’s work in the crucifixion and resurrection, we are both reconciled to Him and live a meaningful daily life to His glory.
The walk of faith involves daily choices, and we struggle with this, especially early on in our Christian walk since prior to our salvation we walked according to the flesh (Ephesians 2:2-3). Every step we take, we live by faith or by the flesh and it is crucial to recognize that there is no in-between. Faith and flesh cannot be mixed, though some try. Any attempt to do so is destructive to any kind of a Christian walk. Every believer must come to the place of putting self aside to live for Christ, endeavoring to do what pleases Him and not self. Spiritual growth takes place as we consciously recognize and acknowledge that Christ is living His life through us (Philippians 1:21; Galatians 2:20). Our very bodies are the residence of the living God, and we belong to Him (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19-20). We are in Christ and Christ is in us and we must live our daily lives conscious of this wonderful truth.
The life of grace is only a life of faith, daily believing His Word. Believing is a key channel through which God’s grace and strength flows into and through our lives.
- We must daily be in the Word of God, feeding and strengthening this relationship.
- We must always recognize our inadequacies, daily keeping short accounts with God through confession and repentance of sin.
- We must daily allow the Spirit of God to have full control of our lives to bring to remembrance God’s Word and assisting us in making the right decisions.
- We must recognize that the old nature of the believer remains sinful until the day we finally see Jesus face to face (1 John 3:1-3).
- We must daily walk with our Lord and experience the joy of His personal companionship in constant communication (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
I trust that this will be a great day for you as you walk with the Lord – Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving (Colossians 2:7).
Think about this:
- God is good – all the time!
- God loves us, not according to how we do, but according to who He is.
- Man’s way leads to a hopeless end. God’s way leads to an endless hope.
The late George Stiekes served in several churches through his ministry. In his later years, he published a daily newsletter he called Reverent Reflections. We draw from his stock of devotions for occasional articles here on Proclaim & Defend.
Photo by Harsh Gupta on Unsplash