Faith Is Spelled "R-I-S-K"

Ecclesiastes 11:4 “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.” Some years back during a fast, I felt God tell me to go to the airport and start praying for people. I had seen it modeled by folks like Todd White and Robbie Dawkins, but I’m really not the type to strike up conversations with strangers so this felt really uncomfortable for me. With each encounter, I felt some words of doubt pop into my head. Thoughts from “He looks Malay so probably a Muslim and might get offended” to “she’s kind of attractive and might think I’m trying to hit on her” rolled through my head to counter the call at each turn. I forget the exact stats, but I think I asked 21 people if I could pray for them that morning, and only 4 declined. Most of them seemed encouraged and last week after seeing me on TV and being reminded of our encounter one of them reached out to say thanks again. Often we make the most impact when we get out of our comfort zone and take spiritual risk, because that demonstrates our faith. In fact, I’ve heard several pastors say that the way you spell “Faith” is “R-I-S-K”. Well for the last few nights, our friends Calvin and Alarice at Awaken Generation have been holding online prayer and worship sessions for our friend who is in a coma. The presence of God has been so thick as over 100 people gather to cry out for a miracle and to worship the Lord despite difficult circumstances. I was putting the kids to bed in the middle of the meeting, but later Elaine told me that Calvin had asked her to pray in the midst of the meeting, and she felt God put it on her heart to share the story of Lazarus. “I feel like it was a real turning point somehow. Since the accident I just couldn’t understand why God would allow this suffering. It makes no sense. But earlier I felt He led me to this story, where Jesus ‘allowed’ Lazarus and his family to suffer for longer to bring more glory to the Father. That’s totally something that would make sense of this whole situation.” I told her that I was proud of her for sharing that so publicly despite our friend’s medical situation looking so dire. That to me feels like spiritual risk, because one might think “well what if it doesn’t end up well? I’ll look dumb, and I could have raised the hopes of his family only to set them up for more disappointment.” Of course, we’re not to take dumb risk when God doesn’t call us to it. Jesus didn’t jump off the temple roof when Satan tempted. But I believe that when God calls, he’s very proud of us for taking spiritual risk. Lord thank you for giving us opportunities to expand. We would never ask for such difficult situations for anyone we love, but what the enemy intends for evil, we know you always use it for good. Help us to take more spiritual risk, to think bigger and to have faith for miracles today. We love you. In your son’s name, Amen.