Look at the proud!
They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked.
But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. Habakkuk 2:4 (NLT)
What does that mean "The righteous will live by the faith"? I've heard this said many time. I now wonder if people who say that have been through anything really trying to their soul. It's easy to spout it off. Much harder to live it.
So, not being sure what I thought of this, I went to the source. This is how this conversation went in my head when I was asking God about it.
God, there are so many things upside down right now. All of a sudden we have all these things to deal with that are keeping us from normal. Not that we were ever normal but, I'd really like to get back to the not-so-normal life that we live without these added stressors. Will you please talk and lead so we can follow?
What if you talk and I don't hear? What if I miss what you said? The problem is sometimes I doubt that I am even hearing you. Did I miss something? Did I inadvertently write off what you said and not obey?
Ahhhh.....but that then makes this all about me. That thought totally negates your power. It does away with your ability to show up in dreams or burning bushes, in flames in a furnace or through ravensor talking donkeys or any way you please.
Father God, you are bigger than my perception. You are bigger than my hearing. You are bigger than my problems.
After that little conversation with God, I realized that maybe living by faith was remembering that it's not about me. Maybe living by faith means remembering that God is who he says he is and that he holds the world (and all my little problems) in his hands. I like the way the Message puts it.
Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—
full of himself but soul-empty.
But the person in right standing before God
through loyal and steady believing
is fully alive, really alive. (MSG)
.....through loyal and steady believing is really alive. Today, I choose to let go of my problem focus and focus on God. I am going to faith (the act of believing). And tomorrow, when my faith seems small, I am going to talk to him again and faith again. And by letting go and believing, I can be truly free.