What is a "Step of Faith?"

January 15, 2024

Have you ever heard anyone use the phrase, “take a step of faith?”

What is a “step of faith?”

A step of faith is choosing to obey God and trust God, even if you don’t fully understand all of the details. It’s an action forward, even when you don’t have all of the answers.

Faith requires us to obey even when we don’t understand. In fact, most of the time we aren’t going to understand all the details before we move forward in faith. God almost never reveals all of the steps of his plan. Instead, he reveals it one step at a time.

So, you have to decide, are you going to take that step of faith even though you can't see the next 10 steps?

I don’t know what step you need to take next, but I do know that you need to take it.

Think for a moment, what was the last thing God told you to do? If you haven’t done it, I encourage you to do it now! Stop planning to do it, and just do it.

Your next step may be to accept Jesus Christ into your life or to be baptized. Maybe you need to join a church, show more gratitude, reconcile that relationship, be generous with someone in need, take time to rest, or choose to rely on God instead of yourself.

I don’t know what your next step is, but I do know this: You have one. God will never be finished taking you deeper in faith. There is always a next step.

If you’re asking God to help you with something, he may be asking you, “Why haven’t you done what I’ve already told you to do?” You may have been planning to do something. Stop planning and just do it.

Faith is doing what’s right even when it seems absurd. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding” (HCSB). You never know the whole picture, but God does. 

The Bible gives a great example of trusting and obeying even when it doesn't make sense in the story of Gideon in Judges 7.

Gideon took 300 Israelites to battle 135,000 enemy soldiers. The odds were 450 to one. God had the soldiers take torches, trumpets, and clay pots—a command I’m sure Gideon thought was ludicrous.

Then God told Gideon to put the clay pots over the torches so the light couldn’t be seen at night and to go surround the enemy’s camp. God’s instructions were something like this: “When I tell you to, blow the trumpets, break the pots, and let torchlight suddenly shine out in the darkness. It will look like a huge army is surrounding the camp. It will cause mass confusion, and the enemy soldiers will end up fighting each other.”

Gideon obeyed, even though it didn’t make any sense. The Israelites blew their trumpets, broke their pots, and revealed the light from their torches. The enemy soldiers woke up in shock and started fighting each other instead of the Israelites. Because Gideon did what God told him to do—even when he didn’t understand it—the Israelites won the battle.

Sometimes God tells you to do something that appears foolish—like going into battle facing overwhelming odds. But when you have faith, you’ll obey God even when you don’t understand what he’s asking you to do. Because, you trust God. You have faith in him.

Don’t delay. Take your next step of faith. Then, God will reveal to you the next step and the next.

This is how you will see God work in your life.