Why Faith Always Feels Risky | Joshua 3 | Crossroads Daily

I've just been hearing a lot of things that they're struggling with, with addictions and depression and loneliness. And I'm like, I know the solve for this. I know the solution. I've seen it in my life. And yet I sit on that solution and that solve and I'm just like, I'll just keep it to myself. They're not interested. What a stupid thing to ever say and like bottle up. This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people, just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. Hey, I'm Alex, I'm Arturo, I'm Kirsten and I'm Peter. And today we are continuing in Joshua. The Israelites are so close to the promised land. The only thing that is between them is the Jordan River. It's overflowing. It is impossible to cross. And God tells the priests that are carrying the Ark of the Covenant to walk towards the water anyways. He actually asks them to take a step into the water and then he parts the seas. Get their tootsies wet. Exactly. And I think this is really interesting because we've been talking about faith this whole week and remembering these crazy things that God is doing. And this is the second time this week that we've seen God part the waters for people. And I think a big difference this time is before when he did this through Moses in the Red Sea, he did it before the people even knew that they needed it. And this time he actually asks them, he tells the priest, no, you need to take a step into the water first. And then he does something for him.

It's like honoring this act of faith, this step that they're taking. And so I just wanted to ask you all, do you feel like God is asking you to take a step of faith? And what might that be? It's a big question. I can answer all you guys are thinking. When I think about taking steps of faith, I typically go to like big, grand, I have to do this big act of faith in order for God to part a river for me. And this time when I was thinking about it, I actually thought of maybe a smaller thing that I feel like I have to choose every single day almost, and that's in my finances. I feel like I continually have to surrender, is the best word that I can think of, my finances to God. The faith action is we've chosen in our finances to be generous and to live frugally and to sacrifice on certain things because of the way that we want to be generous, whether it's to the church or to other people. And sometimes I can get really in my head of that, like, do I really need to do that? Maybe forget about that and get the latte today or like whatever, whatever it is. Or even like the bigger things of like, I am worried about my finances. God, is this really something that you want me to be doing right now? And so I feel like that's a continual act of faith. Every time I take a step, I feel like he parts the waters and he like provides for us in some way. Yeah. That's so good, Alex. I totally agree with the financial situation. And I've seen him, God show up time and time again. Every time I choose to follow where he wants my finances to be, he shows up, he shows up. One of those is my sister moved in with us and we don't charge her rent or anything like pay for her food. And it's just been such a blessing.

And I think that's correlating like with family and friends that don't know Jesus. I feel like I'm getting a new fire in me to have bold acts of faith in inviting them to come into church. I've just been hearing a lot of things that they're struggling with, with addictions and depression and loneliness. And I'm like, I know the solve for this. I know the solution. I seen it in my life. And yet I sit on that solution and that solve and I'm just like, I'll just keep it to myself. They're not interested. What a stupid thing to ever say and like bottle up and just be like, it's fine, they'll be fine. How will they be fine? If like I might be the only one that invites them to come to church or like that's the easy one, right? Like come. hang out at 10 a.m. with me, but I've been getting a new fire, and it comes in seasons for me or waves where I'll be feeling a nudge to start pushing on those family, and I've seen tons of my family come to know Jesus through that. So I'm trying to listen to that, but that's the thing that came to my mind today. That's great. Yeah. Well, I often say no for people. Yeah. Like, I don't even give them the option. Like, oh, they'll just say no. So I just want to ask. Right. Right. And that's really us protecting ourselves. You both are talking about risk. Like, what is the thing? There's always risk. Like, acts, steps of faith are hard when I think there's risk involved. Like, you know, I think mine is relational risk, whatever the thing is. Like, I think I was sitting here thinking, I think it's actually. So I started dating someone new about a month ago. This is public now. They're so cute.

It's on the pod. And it's incredible. She's awesome. And also, you know, I had a lot of I have a lot of relational baggage and hurt, and there's always there's a risk. And anytime you start something like that, there's a risk. There's a risk involved. And there's like a there's a little bit of a step of faith in that and some trust that God is good, you know. So yeah. I like what you said about when I when I see this story, something interesting is that the Ark of the Covenant is supposed to represent something about God. Right. God's presence is physically on it. Right. Yeah. Here's the scary thing. I see myself as that Ark of the Covenant technically. Right. Because if I have Jesus in me, here is God saying, I need you to essentially put a representation of me at the water. Here's the scary thing. If I have Jesus in my heart, it shouldn't surprise me at the risk of sounding prophetic. He will ask me where his son dwells to go on the water. So it shouldn't surprise me. And yet sometimes it does. Why would you have me instead of parting it before I get there? Why would you ask that of me? And stories like this remind me that you're talking about me putting myself in a place where I'm going to separate and get through because I need to get through like the Ark of the Covenant needed to get through. And in order to do that, you need to put me at the water and then I will do it. So it shouldn't surprise me when I I I possess Jesus in my heart. So it shouldn't surprise me when he's going to ask me to do the same thing. And so when I hear about this, it's like whatever it is, because I have many of things that right now I have to literally hope that the water gets parted. But unfortunately, it's going to require me to get my feet. What did you call it? My tootsies wet. Just a little bit wet. And it's going to be cold. And I don't know the conditions of the Jordan River. It's going to be whatever it is. And when I do that, then it will happen. It's like I got to get my feet wet. Yes. Yes, you do. And then your tootsies are wet. But then the story says the ground was dry. Isn't that crazy? It wasn't muddy. It wasn't wet. Right. And there's and there's an assurance there knowing that we're reading this. And the same thing will be true thousands of years later that when we get our tootsies wet, the rest of the way, the rest of the way is going to be dry. So there's there's sort of like a promise there, I hope. And if I remember time and time again,

when I've gotten my feet wet, I could say that the rest of the path was dry enough for me to walk and cross through. Yeah. I want to hear one of the times, Archero. Me too. I mean, what can I say? I mean, I taking a step into faith in a nonprofit work, which is technically what we're in. Right. If we work at a church, there was a lot I wasn't going to be able to provide even for my family right now. I'm like and when I got married, so I was already in nonprofit work and then I got married and I told my wife, I'm ready to pull the trigger, if you tell me, because if we need more, I'll find more for us. But the step of faith that she took, because I'm going to include her in this, to walk, keep walking this path that I believe we are called to walk to as a family now. Taking that first step marriage with a kid into nonprofit world together as a family, God has made a way. There are moments where my feet has to get wet because I'm going now, how do we afford this now? How do we get to the other side of that? Yeah, we get to the water and God makes a way. And we're here five years later. We're celebrating five years in about a month. Wow. We're here five years. Having this get our feet wet even our daughters and we get to see the dryness just make a way in front of us That's as specific as I could probably get What's so beautiful in that too is You didn't know what the dry land was going to look like that it would be there You didn't even know that it yeah, you didn't even know that it was gonna be dry yet You were still willing to get your tootsies wet. Yep So get your tootsies wet It's only for a moment Yeah, I mean what I hear you saying It shouldn't surprise me that I should do these things It sounds like there's a promise of dry land What keeps us from right taking that? Step what keeps us from taking that step into the water. I I Mean, I'll go back to self-protection Which is a form of control, you know, it's control anxiety the okay. I was hurt in the past So I'm gonna build this behavior this maladaptation to my life

That's gonna protect me, but it's also gonna imprison me Yeah And so it's breaking out of the prison of our own minds and whatever behaviors or defense mechanisms or things we've created to protect ourselves Yeah from more hurt Avoiding hurt is not living. Yeah I think fear is a big one for me too. And that is Kind of a manifestation of self-protection is what's What's gonna happen? And I don't know so I say no for people or I get nervous and ultimately, I end up maybe not stepping in the water and If I don't step in the water, then I'm not ever going to see dry lands Like I'm not ever going to see a miracle and God work for me So, I don't know where you might need to get your tootsies wet today What act or step of faith God might be calling you into? But whether it's fear or something else that's keeping you from stepping into the water Just remember that there is dry land and there is a miracle for you on the other side You