God has called us to be a part of His story. If we want to be part of God’s story, then we must begin with a journey of faith.
Jesus said “Because of your faith, it will happen.” (Matt. 9:29).
Faith is like a muscle – it has to be developed. You strengthen it by using it. Did you ever have a broken arm? If so, you most likely had a cast on your arm for a month or more. Remember when you had the cast removed and surprised that your arm was actually smaller? Because of their lack of use, the muscles in your arm lost their size and strength.
Faith is like that… if you don’t use your faith; it loses its power and scope of influence.
God tells us that without faith we cannot please Him. (Heb. 11:6)
So what is faith? It is choosing to believe God. It is having confidence in God. And just as important, it is acting on that belief and confidence. God’s word tells us that faith – (that belief and confidence in God) – without works - (our action) is dead. In other words, without acting on our faith, we will have no impact.
God has placed a dream into the heart of Gateway. It is our dream to connect with the people of our community so that they have the opportunity to experience LIFE in Christ.
Rick Warren taught me the six phases of a journey of faith.
- God always starts with a DREAM.
- You have to make a DECISION to do something about the DREAM.
- God will DELAY the DREAM in order to test and grow your faith. God operates on his timetable, not yours.
- While your DREAM is DELAYED, you can expect DIFFICULTY. If you don’t have critics, you are not doing anything.
- God will even allow you to reach a DEAD END while pursuing your DREAM.
Read what Paul said when he reached a dead end:
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 - Once Paul stopped relying on himself, God brought DELIVERANCE. God does things in such a way that everyone will know that he did it!
Our Journey of Faith in Ballentine began as a dream. We made a decision as a family to act on that dream in faith. We faced delays. We have encountered difficulties and we encounter difficulties even now. We have a choice of either experiencing a dead end or responding to God and relying on Him for deliverance. As the Gateway family, let us “rely” only on God!
