Three Steps to God

Hope is an earnest desire of the heart, like a wish. Hope is an invisible goal that cannot be controlled or manipulated. We know it’s there. We can feel it. But it can be as elusive as a shadow. Hopes and dreams tantalise our emotions. Towers can be built on hope, and without a strong foundation they will fall. ‘But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength’ (Isaiah 40:31).

Trust is more positive. It can be built on hope. Trust is sharing our confidence with someone, or an expectancy that something will happen. The Bible tells us to ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3:5). This is a first step to faith, putting our confidence in God that He won’t let us down. We lay aside our agenda and its conditions, perhaps not sure of the outcome, but confident He won’t let us down.

We know He has our best interests at heart, and His ways are not our ways. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8). We have no guarantee things will work out the way we want. God is God.

Faith is much stronger. Faith is being sure. It’s ‘the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see’ (Hebrews 11:1). This is not hope. It’s not even trust. It’s surrendering ourselves to God completely and absolutely, giving ourselves over to Him and allowing Him to do things His way. “I have loved you with an everlasting love”

(Jeremiah 31:3). He knows our heart. He knows our fears. He knows us from the inside out, and He loves us.

Can we respond to this with faith, and allow Him to lead us, His way? Jesus said, “Father, not my will but Yours be done.” Faith is submitting our lives to God, without reservation or conditions. ‘Without faith it impossible to please God’ (Hebrews 11:6). Without faith it is impossible to even draw near to Him.

Faith is the foundation of the Christian life. Yet so many people seem to think they can get along without it. Faith begins by the repenting of our sins and receiving cleansing by the sacrifice of Calvary. It is only by faith we are justified through Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16). “The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20.

God would have us approach Him with clean hands and a pure heart, that He may take us as we are and transform us into the image of Christ

(2 Corinthians 3:18), ‘who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Peter 1:5). Faith is the immovable Rock on which our salvation is built, and our eternal link with God Himself.