Three Steps Forward in Your Walk of Faith

As women, we find ourselves pulled in a thousand directions as we juggle the demands of family, work, church, and friends. We want to honor God and others, and we want to grow in our relationship with Christ, but frankly, we’re struggling to do it all. 

We read Isaiah 40:31 about mounting up on wings like eagles, running and not growing weary, and walking and not fainting, but it feels like we’re walking and fainting more than running and flying. 

But we know the Bible is true, and God never lies. So there must be a way to walk in faith. How do we access this superpower God promises to believers?

Three Steps Forward in Your Walk of Faith

Step 1: Realize you need God’s help.

Walking in faith begins with a realization—we must realize (and admit) that we need God’s help. That each day and all it contains is too big, too scary, and too uncertain to face in our own strength. 

For years, I relied on my own abilities to tackle every challenge. I was a Helen Reddy wannabe: “I am woman, hear me roar.” 

I had read books about marriage, so I knew how to make mine successful . . . until we faced challenges I hadn’t anticipated. Then I had to fall on my face and admit to God, “I don’t know how to fix this. I need You.”

I had read books about child rearing too. I followed the plan, but guess what? My daughters didn’t fit the examples given in the book. I could control their behavior (to a point), but I couldn’t, through the force of my will or the strength of my personality, compel them to love God.

I had to admit to myself and to God, “I don’t know what to do. I need Your help.”

Do you remember wise king Jehoshaphat, one of the good leaders of Judah? He led the people to worship God, but one day, the Moabites and the Ammonites, strong and terrifying people, came marching against Jerusalem, bent on destroying it and everyone who lived within its walls. Jehoshaphat was terrified, but instead of marshalling his forces, counting his bullets, and dusting off his fighter jets, he gathered the people, proclaimed a fast, and admitted that he needed help.

Second Chronicles 20:12 records his prayer: “Our God,” Jehoshaphat said, “we are powerless before this vast number that comes to fight against us. We do not know what to do, but we look to you.”

I don’t know how many times I’ve knelt before the Lord and prayed a version of Jehoshaphat’s prayer, “Lord, I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on You. God, I need Your strength. I need Your wisdom, and I need Your guidance. I need Your provision and Your protection. I need Your promises, and I need Your power. Be glorified in me today.”

The apostle Paul was another godly believer who came to this realization. Paul wanted to walk and serve in health and wholeness. Instead, he had a debilitating physical condition. God had healed others through him, but God hadn’t healed Paul himself.

Do you remember what God told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9? “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

What was Paul’s response? “Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.” Paul stopped relying on his own abilities and strength and admitted he needed God.

Like Jehoshaphat and Paul, we cannot walk in faith in our own strength. We must acknowledge that we need God’s help.

Step 2: Learn God’s character so you can trust Him.

The second step to walking in faith is learning God’s character so we can trust Him.

When I brought my first daughter home from the hospital, she didn’t trust me. Not one bit. My belly had been sliced open on an operating table to bring her into this world. I’d pledged my life to care for her, provide for her, and protect her, but she didn’t know that. 

All she knew was that she was hungry, or wet, or frightened.

So she screamed. Every single time she had a need.

Empty tummy? She screamed.
Wet diaper? She screamed.
Scary noise? She screamed.

Every time she screamed, I responded. 

I fed her. 
I changed her. 
I comforted her.
I kissed her, hugged her, and prayed over her.

Little by little, she learned about me. She didn’t know that she was learning my character, but she was. 

When I fed her, she learned that she could trust me to provide what she needed. I was her provider.

When I changed her, she learned that I was able and committed to care for her. I was her caregiver.

When I comforted her, she learned that her emotional needs mattered to me. I loved her.

Gradually, as her trust in me grew, she screamed less. She felt less fear. She trusted my timing. She had learned that I knew best what she needed, and she could trust me to provide it.

The same is true in our faith walk. To fully rely on God’s strength, we must learn His character. We can’t trust someone we don’t know, and the only way to get to know God is to learn about Him from His own words. 

Sermons, podcasts, and books are great, but when we read the Bible, we are reading the very words of God from His heart to ours. The Bible is how God reveals Himself to us so we can learn to love and trust Him. 

When we read the Bible—the whole Bible—we learn that God is:

• Powerful
• Loving
• Kind
• Wise
• Just
• Patient
• Tender
• Righteous
• Sacrificial

The list goes on and on. 

Day after day, year after year, as we read the history of His love for mankind that reaches from before time began and stretches into eternity, we learn His character and begin to trust Him. 

How could we not trust someone who is powerful, loving, kind, wise, just, patient, tender, and sacrificial?

We see how faithful and kind and patient He was with others in the Bible narrative, and we realize that the same God who worked in their lives is at work in ours. We realize He can give us the strength and ability to walk in faith. 

As our trust grows, it begins to manifest itself in our prayers. First, we trust Him with small things—a prayer here and a prayer there. We see how He answers, and our faith grows. 

Eventually, we trust Him with bigger things, and we see Him answer in wisdom and kindness. As He cares for us, we see how He loves us. Our needs aren’t burdensome to Him. He loves to give good gifts to His children. He loves to provide, protect, and comfort us.

Step 3: Come to God every day.

The final step to walking in faith is coming to God daily for the grace and help we need.

I wish when we accepted Christ as our Savior, we immediately received a lifetime supply of grace and strength. Just back up the semi-truck, Lord, and unload it. I’ll find somewhere to store it. If grace and strength worked this way, I’d be set. 

Feeling uncertain about a decision? Turn on the wisdom spigot.

Scared by a test result? Put the need cup under the faucet.

Hopeless because my loved one still isn’t following the Lord? Turn on the hose, and I’d have all the wisdom and faith I needed.

But you know what? If grace and strength and faith worked this way, I’d never need to sit before God and pour out my heart to Him. I wouldn’t have to labor in prayer and experience the joy when He answers. 

I’d never learn how tender and sweet He could be when my tears flow freely and my heart aches. Or how powerful He is when things seem impossible.

Remember the forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness? A million needy people, stuck in the desert with no way to provide for themselves. How did God feed them?

He sent manna.

Every day, just enough for the day, but enough for the day. No one ever went hungry. No one ever lacked what they needed. Day after day after day.

Lamentations 3:22–23 tells us “[The Lord’s mercies] are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!”

When we come to Him every day, we find that He is faithful to meet us there. He gives us the strength, hope, provision, and grace to walk in faith that day. 

And then tomorrow, He does it again. 

Day after day after day.

Do you know the posture God wants us to have as we come to him? He tells us in Psalm 81:10, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” 

He tells us to ask and we will receive (Matt. 7:7). He encourages us to ask in faith, believing (James 1:6).

So how do we supernaturally walk in faith?

First, we realize and admit that we need God—that we cannot do it alone. 

Second, we read the Bible—the whole Bible—to learn God’s character and why we can trust Him.

Finally, we come to Him every day for the grace and help we need.

Walking in faith, compared to flying or running, is decidedly unglamorous. One clunky step after another. Walking is slow, methodical, and decidedly ungraceful. 

This is why I was surprised that Isaiah included walking in his glorious description of the believer who hopes in the Lord: 

Those who trust in the LORD
will renew their strength; 
they will soar on wings like eagles; 
they will run and not become weary, 
they will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Most of us can probably describe a time when we soared—a season when all was right with the world and we were on top of it. Life was effortless and glorious.

We may also recall times when we ran with strength and speed. We tackled life’s challenges with endless enthusiasm.

Flying and running days, however, are the exception for the Christian. As my pastor pointed out one day, we spend most of our lives walking.

Thankfully, God promises that if we:

Realize and admit that we cannot do it alone . . . 

Learn His character so we can trust Him . . . 

Go to Him every day for the help we need . . . 

He’ll help us walk and not faint. 

Every single day. 

Until He returns or calls us home.

*This post is based on Lori’s book Walking in Faith: 60 Devotions to Renew Your Strength, published by Our Daily Bread Publishing.