Steps of Faith: Answering God's Call on Your Life

By Joye Angel

Our hearts' desire is to have a deep and meaningful relationship with God. God desires to have a deep and meaningful relationship with us. Life gets busy, and we tend to get ourselves in the way. Where do we start? How do we get there? We are ready to take that first step but need guidance. Steps of Faith takes us through the process step by step. Each step is explained by breaking down the stories of the heroes of faith and using real-life examples. Steps of Faith walks us through cultivating our relationship with God and gives us the tools needed to keep that relationship strong. At the end, we take what we have learned and put our faith into action through a one-week step commitment.

Are you ready to take that step of faith? Are you ready to answer the call that God has placed on your life? God is ready and waiting for us to follow Him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638442141

Joye Angel

Joye Angel is the founder of Hands Outstretched for People Everywhere (HOPE) ministries, an author, blogger, and host of the Road of Faith podcast. She and her husband, Kevin, have three amazing adult children and reside in Oklahoma. Joye enjoys writing, spending time with family, and sharing God’s love with others. For more, visit www.joyelangel.com or www.myhopeministries.com.

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Step 1

Trust in God

Most of you have already mentally checked this one off. You’re saying, Of course I trust God. Let us take a closer look at people who really trusted God. In Genesis 12 we see Abram (later renamed Abraham) fully trusting in God to take care of him and his family.

Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him. (Genesis 12:1–4)

God told Abram to leave everything and follow Him. You will notice that Abram did not argue with God or make excuses why he could not leave the only life he had ever known. He just simply went. He completely trusted that God would provide for Him no matter where he went. If you read on in the Scriptures, Abram was not a young man when God called him; he was seventy-five years old. God does not care what your age is; He just wants a willing servant to do His will.

Another good example is Noah. We all know the story of Noah and the ark, but think about this, it had never rained on the earth before and Noah was over five hundred years old when God called him. Noah would have had plenty of excuses to not build the ark. Genesis 6 tells us that God was pretty specific with Noah on what He wanted him to do.

And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them. Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did. (Genesis 6:13–22)

Noah did not question God. He did not give God suggestions on how to build the ark. He did not waver even though others questioned his decision. He did as he was commanded to do. He fully trusted God to take care of Him. He and his family boarded the ark when God told him to.

Then the Lord said to Noah, Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. (Genesis 7:1–5)

Again, Noah trusted God. He had no idea what was going to happen once he and his family were inside the ark, shut up with all of those animals, but he trusted God to take care of him, no matter the circumstances.

Merriam-Webster defines trust as assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

How do you get the same level of trust in God that Abram and Noah had? It is not enough to just believe in God. The devil believes in God. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble! (James 2:19).

There are different levels of trust. You trusted God for salvation. That was your first step of faith. You trusted God for baptism. That was your second step of faith. Do you see where I am going with this? In order to grow in your faith and be able to completely trust Him, you have to take those small steps of faith. Read your Bible, pray, tell others about God, help those in need, do a Bible study, go to church—this list is anything that God is telling you to do.

I always told my children when they were growing up that all I wanted for them was to walk the path that the Lord had laid out for them, that I wanted them to follow God wherever He told them to go. Until my daughter came home and announced that she would be going on a mission trip to an area of a foreign country known for their high crime rate and on the travel advisory list. Yes, I had a crisis of faith for a moment. My flesh took hold, and I really wanted to say no, but I did not. God got ahold of me and brought me back to reality. He reassured me that no matter what happened, He was still in control. It was still a little unsettling because there are so many unknowns in that situation, but I trusted God to take care of my family. In the end, they did not go to that area because travel was restricted and they had to choose a different location. A small test of my trust in God that I could have easily failed. Lesson learned.

What has God asked you to do that you are hesitating about? The simplest way to work it out is to write it all down. Write down what God has called you to do and what is holding you back. That makes it real. Until you either say the words out of your mouth or write them down, it does not fully sink in. Read over the things that are holding you back. Is there something on this list that God cannot handle? If God can handle it, mark it off. What is left? Nothing. You now have nothing holding you back from serving God.

Do you feel His urging in your life at all? If not, you need to spend time in prayer with Him. One of the scriptures that helps to get your heart focused on God for prayer is found in Philippians 4.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4–9)

Put Your Faith in Action

Several years ago, God started me on this journey. He would only give me one step, and I had to wait until after I completed that step to get the next