“I’m living by faith. If God wants it to happen, it will. ” This sounds so spiritual. It can, however, deceptively hide an unwillingness to risk failure or work hard. Sometimes we unknowingly deceive ourselves. We remain passive instead of stepping out to do something new or difficult. We struggle to believe that God will reward our actions of faith. Faith and works are not opposites. They are both equally important if we want to release a movement.
The problem of speaking about our faith without taking necessary actions to demonstrate it appears in many different areas of our lives as disciple makers. It shows up in our evangelism. We see it in our fundraising and finances. How we set goals says a lot about our faith as well. Our feelings of discouragement in the discipleship process as we help new believers grow and change is another area where this issue of faith and works arises.