Faith can be spelled, “R.I.S.K.”

Clarity?  Faith?  Trust? Risk?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. –Proverbs 3:5 (NLT)

I have heard the story of John Kavanaugh who spent three months in Calcutta, India, serving the poor and trying to get a handle on how best to spend his life. He met Mother Teresa who asked him if there was anything she could do for him. He requested that she pray for him. When she asked what she could specifically pray for, Kavanaugh asked her to pray that he would have clarity. Mother Teresa rejected his request. She told him, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” Kavanaugh replied that he longed to have the same kind of clarity that Mother Teresa seemed to have. Hearing this, Mother Teresa laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

Wow.  I’m kind of glad I’m not John Kavanaugh.  That might have been difficult to hear from Mother Teresa.

Sometimes we can make seeking clarity a higher priority than simply trusting God. In issues of faith, when we only seek the safe; and when we only live on the basis of what we know and understand, we end up walking the Christian life by sight, not by faith. This can be dangerous to our spiritual health.

Trust is faith in action. I love the example of Abraham. God called Abraham to move from his own country to another. God told Abraham He would make him into a great nation. That was pretty much the extent of the direction that Abraham was given. Talk about lack of clarity. If I were in Abraham’s shoes, I would have wanted specific details on everything involved before setting out on the journey. However, Abraham trusted God.  Trusting God, Abraham went.  He just went.  He risked.

John Wimber said you can spell “Faith”, “R.I.S.K.”

We did “RISK” when we planted Vineyard North Phoenix.  We had no road map, no details, no money…but we set out trusting God.

Sometimes faith is filled with risk.  To risk, it takes trust.

In the Scriptures, Abraham is called, the “father of all who believe”. Yet, taking a closer look into Abraham’s life, we find that Abraham was also an average person who struggled with real life issues. He made risky decisions. He made a number of bad decisions. Abraham did not live a safe life. Ignoring great clarity, he pursued God’s calling on his life and lived a life of trust and risk.

Is there any area God is calling you to trust Him in?  to risk in?

Blessings,

Thora