“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. It is a life of faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us ‘go.’ The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.

The final stage in the life of faith is attainment of character. There are many passing transfigurations of character; when we pray we feel the blessing of God enwrapping us and for the time being we are changed, then we get back to the ordinary days and ways and the glory vanishes. The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting. It is not a question of sanctification; but of something infinitely further on than sanctification, of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test. Abraham is not a type of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith, a tried faith built on a real God. “Abraham believed God.” (Oswald Chambers)

I love that. The life of faith isn’t always mounting up with wings, but walking and not fainting. It’s not usually mountaintops and ecstatic experiences, but a daily grind where day after day nothing seems to change but when you look back a year or two later, everything’s different. Or more accurately, everything about you is different.

You may think that you’re the same day after day until one day someone cuts you off in traffic and you don’t blow up like you would have last year. It’s when someone disappoints you without meaning to and your life doesn’t come to a screeching halt like it would have two years ago.

Mature faith is when you don’t have to feel God to trust Him, when you don’t need His manifestations or gifts as much as you need Him and Him only. And it comes not from soaring with eagle’s wings but from walking and not fainting.