Stop Trying to Walk by Faith — and Start Living by It
I’m excited about what we’re getting into this week. We’re starting a brand new teaching series on how to walk by faith, and I want to be as practical as possible. But before we get to the how, we need to answer the question most people skip right over: Why?
Why should you live by trusting God instead of trusting yourself? Instead of trusting your bank account, your contacts, your intellect? That’s where we’re starting today.
This is not optional — it’s how the just are supposed to live.
Go with me to Habakkuk 2:4:
Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith.
— Habakkuk 2:4 (NKJV)
That phrase — the just shall live by faith — appears four times in Scripture, almost verbatim every time. To my knowledge, that’s the only statement in the Bible you can say that about. That alone should tell you something.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been justified freely by His grace. That means you are the just. And if you are the just, God expects you to live by faith. That’s not a suggestion. That’s the design.
Not living by faith is actually pride — and here’s why.
Look at the contrast in that verse. On one side: the proud, whose soul is not upright. On the other: the just, living by faith. James isn’t splitting them randomly. He’s making a point.
Faith means you’re not trusting in your own abilities, your own knowledge, your own resources. You’re trusting in God’s ability, God’s word, God’s resources — contrary to your own. You’re acknowledging you don’t see everything. You don’t know everything. And you need Him.
Pride does the opposite. If you’ve decided you’re not going to live by faith — and God has said the just shall live by faith — you’re basically telling God He doesn’t know what He’s talking about. That’s pride. And it sneaks up on you. It’s pretty easy to start trusting in money. In your contacts. In your physical strength. In your track record. I have to check myself on this regularly.
Salvation is bigger than a get-out-of-Hell-free card.
Here’s something that affects how you walk by faith more than most people realize. Go to Romans 1:16–17:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
— Romans 1:16–17 (NKJV)
The word salvation in the New Testament — sozo, soteria — doesn’t just mean you don’t go to Hell. It means to be brought to a place of complete soundness. Temporal deliverance. Right now, where you are.
When Jesus walked the earth, was He only helping people in the hereafter? Was He telling the sick, “Hang on, when you die it’ll all be fine”? No. He was bringing people deliverance right where they stood. If all you think grace provided was escape from Hell, then that’s all your faith will ever reach for. But if you understand that salvation means complete soundness — spirit, soul, body, financially, socially — then you’ll start walking by faith toward all of it.
Drawing back is exactly where faith stops working.
Hebrews 10:38 says: “Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
And Hebrews 11:6 follows it up: without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Here’s why that matters. God rewards those who diligently seek Him. When you draw back from faith, you disqualify yourself from the reward — not because God is withholding, but because you’ve walked away from the very thing that accesses what He’s already provided.
Think about it this way. If a father sacrificed to buy his daughter a bicycle, and she said, “Daddy, I’m unworthy. I can’t ride it.” Would he say, “Great, I’m so glad”? No. He’d say, “Girl, get on that bicycle. Daddy worked hard for that.” God went to great lengths to provide everything you need — and it displeases Him when you won’t access it.
This is not a commitment to try — it’s a commitment to do.
As we start this series, I want to be straight with you. Walking by faith is not for the faint of heart. There’s a reason this show is called Fight To Win — not fight until you get tired, not fight until you can’t take it anymore. Fight to win.
That means no drawing back. It means making a commitment right now — sink or swim, I’m in it. Not because walking by faith is easy, but because God said this is how the just shall live. And if He said it, that settles it.
The revelation of everything Jesus purchased for you is revealed from faith to faith. You can’t see it any other way. But when you start walking by faith, it begins to open up. And it won’t stop.
Fight To Win. Start today.
