God is moving on your behalf – even when you don’t see him moving.

Does anybody really buy that?

Think about the situation you are facing right now – it could be a situation with work, it could be the lack of work, it could be the health of a family member, lack of money – all things that we say we are trusting God for.

What is your back-up plan if God doesn’t come through for you?

Oops, did I just say that out loud in cyber space?

But seriously, tell me that you do have a back-up plan right?

God has put this pop quiz in front of me so many times and what do I do?  I pull out my Cliffs Notes and fail miserably.  Lean in close and maybe you can see my paper well enough to learn from my failures.

When you’re faced with a situation that requires faith, and every situation does, ask yourself what your back up plan is  – and here’s the secret. . . if you have one, a back-up plan that is – then you’re not walking in faith.

Ummm, so maybe we have the wrong idea of what faith is in the first place.

Faith is not the fluffy, perfectly packaged marshmallow substance that we’ve all been spoon fed.  I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we are gagging on this stuff – whatever it is.  God does not see faith as fluffy. Real faith is a rottweiler that does not let go.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Despite it’s invisible quality, it’s such a force to reckon with that God views it as “evidence”.  It’s proof that hope has and is taking place to create something wonderful on your behalf.

Try this on for size, you and I are the city’s finest crime stopping duo.  Ackermann and  _____________ (psst, fill your last name in here).  We drink our coffee black, out of cups without sleeves and flash our badges like the paparazzi flash bulbs.  We’re tough and the city needs us.

“B and E”, you say nonchalantly as you take a pen out of your jacket pocket.  You crouch down in the doorway of our latest crime scene, using your pen to move some glass shards.

“Breaking and entering,” I explain over my shoulder, to the crowd of gawking bystanders.

“How do you know?” a young boy wonders aloud with admiration beaming in his eyes.

“Take notes, kid.  Obviously,we didn’t see the perp breaking and entering the premise.  But the evidence doesn’t lie.  You can see the broken glass from the window and the front door was left wide open.” I say, chewing my gum and pacing the inside perimeter of the yellow tape separating us.

“You’ll also notice the size 10 footprints in the hallway,” you pause for effect.  “We find the size 10 Nike’s with residue from the wet paint on the curb, we find our guy,” you say standing as you put your pen back in your jacket pocket.

“Good work.  Let’s go get our guy.” I say as we slide our mirrored, aviator sunglasses onto our faces in perfect synchronization.

Faith is just as obvious (no, not our stylish eyewear), faith is evidence.

We don’t always quite see faith that way but God does.  Your faith is the evidence – the proof of things hoped for.  Your faith proves that the thing you are hoping for is a reality.

Now for those of you who have been “disappointed by faith”, maybe things didn’t work out they way you thought they would.  Take a detour with me.

Faith is not a presupposed idea of how things are going to work out.

I have done this.  Oh, how I have done this.  This is the sneaky cousin of the back up plan.  Be Cautious! – this can leave you reeling, wondering why God left you hanging.  But the truth is, our trust really wasn’t in God.  Our trust was in our understanding of how the situation would work out.  Proverbs 3:5 says it this way:

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

True faith is all about trusting God to lead.  A blind-folded, real-life version of follow the leader. 

No back-up plans, just faith.