How?

My friend and I were talking about diets. Linda is very practical. I sent her a link to a diet that I was interested in. Her response was, “Very sensible stuff. The trick is just to actually DO it.” So, what is the difference between knowing something and doing it? Why is it so difficult? How do you take something you believe and make it something that you live?

I confess there are things I want to do, goals I want to reach. I want my life to be well-lived. I don’t want to be simply a dreamer who wakes up when my life is over to find nothing but disheveled bed sheets produced from sleepwalking. In Colossians 3:2 it says that we are to set our minds, we are to have understanding, to seek for, things above. How?

My first step is faith. Is that right? Is that really the first step? I remember when I was a young teenager telling my mother that I wanted to have more faith. She told me that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. She invited me to wake up with her the next morning at 5 a.m. if I wanted more faith and begin reading the Bible. That was over 50 years ago. How did my actions affect my faith? By hearing the word of God I learned who it was that I was putting my faith in.

Faith isn’t just an idle belief. If I simply fill my mind with lofty ideas of who God is, and I am constantly thinking about how much Jesus loves me, but not allowing those thoughts to affect how I live, then it is the same as being a glutton with a library filled with books about healthy eating. True faith involves action. My faith is seen when I take the intangible truths that I believe in and make them tangible by my actions.

Again I ask, how? How do I take something that I believe in and make it something that I live? Is it because I’ve been waking up early ever since I was a child seeking truth, seeking God? Is it my efforts to act on what I believe that breathes life into my faith? No, it’s more than that. To be more than a dreamer, to be fully awake, you must be made alive in the spiritual realm. It is only when you have put your faith in the word of God, concerning the Kingdom of God, and received the breath of God that is the Spirit of God, that you can be fully alive.