Grace Stocked the Refrigerator — Now Faith Has to Open the Door

I’m excited to keep going in this series on how to walk by faith. We’ve covered the why. Today I want to give you something that will unlock the how — and it starts with understanding the relationship between grace and faith. Because if you get these two confused, you’ll either be starving next to a full refrigerator or working yourself to death trying to stock one that’s already full.

Walking by faith means choosing a different way to live.

Second Corinthians 5:7 says we walk by faith and not by sight. That’s not just a nice verse to put on a coffee mug.

It means there is a decidedly different way to walk when you choose to live by faith — because faith and sight do not peacefully coexist.

Think about it like this. I’ve been trying to lose weight. I’ve also been eating a box of those little Blue Bunny mini ice cream cones in a day. Those two things don’t peacefully coexist. I have to choose one. Same principle applies here. You cannot fully live by faith and fully live by what you can see, feel, and touch at the same time. You will have to choose. And we’ve chosen faith.

Faith can only access what grace has already provided.

Go with me to Romans 5:2:

Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

— Romans 5:2 (NKJV)

That one phrase changes everything: access by faith into this grace. Faith doesn’t create anything. Faith accesses what grace has already provided. This is critical, because it means two things at once — and both are true at the same time.

First: there is nothing you can do to add to what grace has provided. The refrigerator is already stocked. Before the foundations of the world, everything you could ever need was set aside for you through the finished work of Jesus. It’s not based on your performance. It’s not earned. It’s a Jesus story, start to finish.

Second: if you don’t walk by faith, you don’t access it. Grace has stocked the refrigerator — but faith is what opens the door.

Grace people are starving next to a full refrigerator.

Here’s where it gets practical. There are two camps that have gotten this wrong in opposite directions, and both are suffering for it.

The grace camp has a good grip on the refrigerator being stocked. They know it’s not about them — it’s about Jesus. And they’re right. But a lot of them are sitting on the couch, staring at that refrigerator, rejoicing that it’s full — and slowly starving to death. They’ll tell you, “I believe God’s best for my life.” But nothing is manifesting. Nothing is moving. Why? Because you have to get up off the couch, walk across the room, and take something out of the refrigerator. Believing it’s there is not the same as laying hold of it.

The word of faith camp, on the other hand, has gotten up off the couch — which is the right move. But they think it’s their walking across the room that stocks the refrigerator. Every time they make a mistake, they’ve convinced themselves they’ve lost access. “I didn’t confess it right. I didn’t give enough. I missed it somewhere.” They’re exhausted, inconsistent, and constantly looking at themselves. But walking across the room doesn’t put food in the refrigerator. It just lays hold of what’s already there.

Both camps need each other. The grace folks need to start moving. The faith folks need to take their eyes off themselves and put them back on Jesus.

Your faith should not be in your faith — it should be in His.

This is where it gets freeing. The shield of faith in Ephesians 6 is described as part of the whole armor of God. Whose shield is it? God’s. Whose faith is it? His. The faith you’ve been given is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ resonant on the inside of you.

So when something goes wrong, the question is not, “Where did I open the door? What did I do wrong? How do I fix this?” That’s putting faith in yourself. This is not an us story. This is a Jesus story. Your faith should rest entirely in what He has already done — not in your own consistency, your own confession record, or your own performance.

The moment you start trusting in what grace has provided rather than what you can produce, faith becomes restful instead of exhausting.

Get off the couch and go get what belongs to you.

Here’s the bottom line. Everything you need — healing, provision, peace, wisdom, freedom — has already been purchased and set aside. Grace provided it. It’s in the refrigerator. But only faith accesses the grace of God. If you choose not to walk by faith, you are choosing not to access what Jesus died to give you.

That is why we must learn to walk by faith. Not to earn anything. Not to perform for God. But because the blood of Jesus was shed for more than just getting us out of Hell — and it’s time to grab hold of all of it.

Get up. Walk over. Open the door.

Fight To Win. Start today.