A Surrendered Life: How Faith Is One Of The Most Important Things In Your Christian Walk

Hebrews 11:1 states, ” Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ”

I was at the end of my rope. I knew I needed to change my life, but I didn’t know how. A friend I met at work was a Christian, and he was loving and kind to me. He wore his faith on his sleeve and lived out what he claimed to believe in a practical manner, so when I realized I needed help to get out of the lifestyle that mentally and physically exhausted me, I went to him. He told me about Jesus and how I would only be free if I surrendered my life to Him. I had no idea what that meant at the time, but I opened my heart to trying to understand. What happened next, I could have never imagined.

As my friend and I walked back to work from the gas station on one of our lunch breaks, he expressed his surprise at how much I knew about God and the gospel, yet I did not consider myself one of His followers. Although I grew up going to church and listening to years of preaching from the Bible, I had never truly placed my faith in God; my understanding of Him had remained purely intellectual. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

When I truly opened my mind to understand who God is, He revealed Himself to me. God showed me that He was not hiding; He had always been with me and could help me if I trusted Him fully. The more time I spent thinking about God, the more His miraculous love and grace were realized in my heart and mind. These were not things I could see but things I was experiencing and could not deny.

God took my intellectual knowledge of Him and transformed it into a deep, heart-level conviction that He is who He says He is, and I could believe Him. My journey to salvation took about three months, but through God’s grace, I was saved by placing my faith in Christ. The reward I gained by earnestly seeking Jesus was that of peace, love, mercy, and spiritual growth that I could not have obtained on my own.

Faith doesn’t stop at salvation

While the initial step of faith is vital for salvation, it is important to understand that faith is not confined to that moment. The journey of faith begins when we accept Christ into our lives, but it truly unfolds and deepens throughout our Christian walk as we follow Jesus. This ongoing process of faith involves continual growth, transformation, and reliance on God. When I initially said “yes” to Him, my life circumstances were the same, but I was now looking to God to guide me in the direction He wanted me to go for a better way of living. As the Holy Spirit instructed me through our relationship, the Scriptures, and other Christians He placed in my path, I had to choose to continue in the same faith that led to salvation.

The path was not always clear, and I certainly couldn’t see how “good” could come from the many challenges I faced. But God is the same, and His grace and mercy never fail! When He called me to believe in Him, He offered me a new life, a new way of living, salvation in His name, and hope for my future. I trusted Him completely, and Jesus calls us to continue that trust and obedience throughout our Christian journey.

I don’t know about you, but for some reason, the initial faith for salvation feels easier than any other form of faith I’ve experienced throughout my walk with Christ. Why did it seem so easy to say “YES” to Jesus when I was teetering on the edge of a cliff, and one more wrong decision could have sent me falling over, yet it seems so hard to say “yes” to Jesus in the day to day acts of obedience in the comfort of my home?

Perhaps it was because I was desperate and knew I needed help! It is easy to have faith when you are in trouble, but it isn’t as easy to maintain faith when God calls us to do something outside of our comfort zone. However, one thing I’ve learned about God is that He loves to take us out of our comfort zones because that is when He can get the most glory!

As I continue to seek God, the spiritual rewards continue to amaze me. However, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that after our conversion, we alone are responsible for living the Christian life and have to figure everything out on our own. This belief is far from the truth. No amount of good works or moral behavior can replace faith in God and our complete dependence on Him. God will provide you with convictions, desires, and the strength to fulfill all that He has planned for your life, but it requires acknowledging Him in all that we do first and foremost.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that after coming to Christ, we are all on our own to accomplish good works, moral behaviors, and religious obligations. This way of thinking is not reliance on Christ but reliance on ourselves. Continue to walk in faith, trusting that God will equip you with everything you need to follow Him.

Faith in action

Hebrews 11 is the “faith chapter” in the Bible. It discusses the many examples of God calling humans to do His will, and their response is obedience, which equates to faith! One of the examples that stands out in Hebrews 11 is Noah. It says, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith” (Hebrews 11:7).

God called Noah to build an ark because he would bring rain that would flood the whole earth. Not seeing anything suggesting a rainfall that would flood everyone out, Noah built the ark in obedience and saved his family. Was it disrupting Noah’s life to do this? Probably! Was it confusing and possibly terrifying? I could imagine so. But God desires to cultivate dependency on Him that can only be realized through complete obedience to His good and perfect will. Believe it or not, God wants us to trust Him! God wants His children to understand that He is good and perfect and desires only the best for us. However, our perception of what is “best” often differs from God’s perspective. We typically consider what makes us happy to be the best, while God’s version of the best focuses on what leads to holiness.

Faith produces obedience

When my husband and I moved across the country, we knew God was leading us in that direction. At this point in the journey, it felt exciting and foolish all at once because my husband had just finished his training with the state police, but we couldn’t ignore all the doors God was opening for us to be able to go. I was a fresh infant in Christ; I had only been a Christian for two years. Every experience in my Christian life up to that point had been amazing and beautiful because I saw God show up so radically in my transformation from darkness to light.

After a few years of living across the country, my faith was refined and challenged in ways I never expected! I had to learn to trust God in things I could not see but was hoping for, listen to His voice, draw assurance from the Scriptures, and press in deeply to maintain faith that He was working all things together for my good (Romans 8:28). Like Noah, I had to put all my faith into action through obedience and stay in a place I hated, and do things I did not want to do. Eventually, God led us out of that place and brought us back home.

During those years living in unknown places, God grew my faith, which produced obedience to Him. Little did I know then that God was using those years to prepare me for even more challenging seasons ahead. I imagine that after Noah got off the boat and saw that the entire human race was wiped out, it was a surreal moment in his life. Building the ark was a stepping stone compared to what he would face afterward, in my opinion.

Jesus is the perfect illustration of complete faith in the Father. He trusted God to the point of death on the cross, trusting that God was who He said He was: good, perfect, and just. I imagine Jesus’ trust grew in the Father as He understood the Scriptures were speaking of Himself and as He grew in His relationship with the Father. As we navigate life’s challenges, our faith is tested and refined, allowing us to experience God’s presence and guidance in profound ways. Like Jesus intentionally went away to be with the Father, we must be intentional in our relationship with Christ. We must engage in prayer, reading the Scriptures, fellowship, and community.

A surrendered life of faith

When we respond in faith to salvation, we must continue in faith as we follow Jesus wherever He might call us. We must be obedient even when life is hard, and we can’t see the end result. In those moments, we have to have full assurance in who God reveals Himself to be and hope in His promises to bring about good for those who love him. There may be people who don’t understand the conviction God lays on your heart, but like Noah and building the ark, we must act in holy fear and do what God has said regardless.

At first, I didn’t understand what my friend meant when he told me I needed to surrender my life to Jesus. Now, I realize that living a surrendered life means having complete faith in God, learning to rely on Him in every aspect of our lives, and recognizing that our faith in Him becomes deeper with each step we take. If you have given your life to Christ, I hope you continue to nurture that faith, allowing God to have complete control as you embrace a surrendered life.