Faith Requires Risk

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.” — Proverbs 3:5

A lot of people say they have faith—right up until it requires something of them.

Many of us want God to guarantee a successful outcome before we take the first step. We want assurance, clarity, and full understanding. We want all the details. But Scripture makes it clear: that’s not faith.

Faith always involves risk. It requires movement before certainty. It calls us to obey before we understand.

If God is leading you in a direction, don’t wait. Take a step of faith in that direction… even if you don’t have all the details yet. If you keep in tune with him, he will guide your next step, and the next. Keep prayerfully making the next step.

Sometimes, we take a step in a direction we think he is leading us, and then he opens up a completely new path that we never expected. The point is, take a step of faith AND keep in tune with him as you take the next step and the next.

Proverbs 3:5 invites us to trust God wholeheartedly, not leaning on our limited perspective. We don’t see the whole picture. God does.

One of the most striking examples of this is found in Judges 7. God told Gideon to lead just 300 men against 135,000 enemy soldiers. The odds were impossible—450 to 1. Then the battle plan unfolded, and it sounded even more unreasonable: Take torches, trumpets, and clay jars. Hide the torches. Surround the enemy camp. Then, on command, break the jars, blow the trumpets, and let the light blaze into the night.

To Gideon, this must have sounded illogical at best—reckless at worst.

But Gideon obeyed.

And when he did, God moved. The enemy woke in confusion, turned their swords on one another, and fell into chaos. The Israelites didn’t win because they were strong or strategic. They won because they trusted God enough to obey Him, even when the plan made no sense.

That’s what faith looks like.

Sometimes God calls you into situations where the odds look impossible, the instructions feel strange, or the next step seems risky. But faith says, “Lord, I’ll trust You—even here. Even now. Even when I don’t understand.”

You may not see the full picture. You may not grasp the why or the how.

But God sees it all with perfect clarity.

And when you trust Him—He is faithful to lead you exactly where you need to go.