What is a Work of Faith?

I had barely entered my teens when I walked into the living room of the house Kay Arthur was renting in Red Bank, Tennessee. Teaching a room full of teenagers was her work of faith for that summer back in the late 1960's. By the time I was graduating from high school I had contributed to her work by donating my baby-sitting money to help purchase the farm that would become the headquarters for Precept Ministries International. Kay was the first one to teach me that faith that is alive is a faith that is at work. I have watched what began in Kay's living room become a ministry that is being used in nearly 185 countries and 70 languages. However, this is not the only work of faith I have seen.

I have seen people's lives transformed by what they believed. I have known people who were prisoners to habits that were destroying them but when they fixed their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith, they were set free. Often the freedom came when the prison door was opened and they chose not to respond to their fears that seemed to scream, “You have no hope!” but instead they chose to act on the promise of Jesus that said, “Arise and walk, you are free.”

Sometimes our work of faith happens when we have stumbled along the way. Suddenly we find ourselves covered in shame having sinned in a way we never thought possible. Everywhere we look we are reminded of our failures. Again Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith, reminds us that if we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The work of faith is to humbly say the same thing about our sin that Jesus says and then to stand up. By faith we turn our gaze away from ourselves and towards our savior.

Two women were talking. They had become friends in early adulthood and now were in their seventies. They had each seen the powerful hand of the God they followed. Their walk had taken them to both mountain tops as well as to valleys. Sorrow and suffering had become companions for them along the way. By faith their sorrow and suffering were changed to joy and peace. In the fullness of their experience their spirits have become gentled and quieted by the one whom they follow.

One of the things I pray for every day is that God will show me the good works he has prepared in advance for me to do that particular day. I believe that he has given each person spiritual gifts to use. I believe that one of my gifts is to encourage others in their faith. I have to be honest, sometimes I get discouraged. Sometimes I wonder if my words have any effect at all. If I measure the results of my life by the lives of others I become disheartened. It is a constant choice to turn my eyes to Jesus the author and finisher of my faith and to be strong and courageous and do the work of faith that is given me each day. It is also an act of faith to say, “thank you,” believing that when I asked him to show me the good works he had for me to do that he did.