If You Never Step Out In Faith, How Will You Get To Watch The Lord Move?

There’s a phrase that’s been on my lips all week:

“If you never step out in faith, how will you get to watch the Lord move?”

Douglas and I have been walking through some pretty big leaps of faith lately, and as we’ve been seeking the Lord for answers, this thought just keeps coming back to me. It’s shown up in my prayer time. It’s shown up in conversations with friends. It even showed up while I was standing in line at the grocery store, of all places, like God was tapping me on the shoulder saying, “Are you listening yet?”

Every big faith step I’ve ever taken has given me a front-row seat to watch our wonderful, working King move. Every time I’ve said yes when something felt impossible or scary, He has shown up in ways only He could. Not in ways I engineered. Not in ways I could have manufactured on my own strength or planning. Only He could have done it.

We can live in fear and stay stuck, or we can walk out in faith and watch Him work. It really is that simple.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. It rarely is. But on the other side of that scary step is often where we get to see His wonder-working power in ways we never could have imagined. And I think that’s the part we forget when we’re standing at the edge of a decision, heart pounding, palms sweaty, wondering if we’re about to make the biggest mistake of our lives. We forget that the fear we’re feeling isn’t a sign to stop. Sometimes it’s a sign we’re standing exactly where God wants to show off.

You Know the Thing

I see so many people living day after day feeling stuck — knowing there’s something they need to do, but too afraid to actually take the step. They talk about it. They pray about it, sort of. They think about it in the shower and while they’re driving and right before they fall asleep at night. But the step itself? It just sits there, untaken, growing heavier the longer it waits.

So can I encourage you today?

Take the next step.

You don’t have to take ten steps. You don’t have to know exactly how it’s all going to work out. You just have to take one.

I think one of the biggest things that holds us back is this question: “But am I sure that was God speaking? What if I heard wrong?”

So we overthink it. We talk ourselves out of it. We convince ourselves it’s probably just fear, or that maybe we misunderstood what God was asking us to do. We run it through every filter we can find — is this wise, is this logical, is this what a “responsible” person would do — and somewhere in all that filtering, the nudge gets quieter and quieter until we’ve talked ourselves right out of obedience.

Here’s the thing though. Scripture is full of people who stepped out before they had the full picture. Abraham left his home country not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). Peter got out of the boat and walked on water — not because he had it all figured out, but because Jesus said “come” and he moved his feet before his mind could talk him out of it (Matthew 14:29). The woman with the issue of blood pushed through a crowd just to touch the hem of Jesus’s garment, believing that alone would be enough (Mark 5:27-28). None of them had a guarantee. They had a nudge, and they moved.

That’s really all faith is. Not certainty. Movement in the direction of what you believe God has said, even while your knees are shaking.

A Gracious Father

Almost a decade ago, one of my dear friends said something to me that has stuck with me ever since:

“Michelle, don’t you think that if you stepped out in faith truly believing that God had spoken to you, and you truly believed it was from Him, that God is so gracious that He would redirect your steps if you got it wrong?”

That changed everything for me.

Because I realized I serve a gracious Father — a Father who isn’t waiting for me to make one wrong move so He can say, “Welp, you messed that one up.” He is a good Father who knows the beginning, the middle, and the end. And I can trust Him enough to take the next step, even when I don’t have the whole map.

Think about it this way. If your child came to you, genuinely trying to obey what they believed you’d asked them to do, and they got a small detail wrong along the way, would you punish them for trying? Or would you gently redirect them, proud that they were willing to move at all? That’s a picture — an imperfect one, because we’re imperfect parents — of how much more gracious our Heavenly Father is with us. Proverbs 16:9 says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” He’s not standing back watching us fumble, waiting to say “gotcha.” He’s establishing the steps, even the ones we take imperfectly.

So maybe you need to take that step today.

Maybe it’s going on the date. Putting yourself out there. Starting the business. Moving to the place you’ve felt nudged toward for years. Applying for the college program. Sending the DM. Having the hard conversation. Repairing the relationship you’ve let go quiet for too long. Setting the boundary you’ve been too afraid to set. Saying no to the thing everyone expects you to say yes to. Or whatever that thing was that came to mind as you were reading this.

You know the thing.

And if you don’t know what it is, maybe spend some time asking the Lord what it is. Sit with Him. Get quiet. Sometimes we’re so busy filling our lives with noise that we miss the whisper. Elijah didn’t find God in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, he found Him in the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12). If you don’t know your next step yet, that’s not a failure. That’s an invitation to slow down and listen.

Learning to Trust the One Who Knows

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to interview for a Goldman Sachs business program in the middle of my own season of scaling back and I recently found out I got in.

Honestly, what happened in my heart the day before was almost more exciting to me than getting the acceptance news itself, because it reminded me just how far I’ve come in my own faith walk.

A few years ago, if I’d had an opportunity like this, I would have gotten my hopes SO high. I would have convinced myself it was going to happen. I would have started imagining the whole future built around it before I even knew the outcome. And if it didn’t happen, I would have been crushed probably disappointed, probably angry, probably wondering why God didn’t give me the thing I had prayed so hard for. I would have spent weeks trying to figure out what I did wrong, or worse, wondering if God even heard me at all.

But this time, I looked at Douglas and said, “I love that I honestly don’t care if I get in or not.” And I meant it.

Because if I get in, then I know it was for me. And if I don’t, then I know God has something else for me. That doesn’t mean I don’t want the thing, I absolutely did. It just means I’ve learned that I don’t have to know the outcome to trust the One who does.

I learned that lesson about eight years ago when I applied for a job I honestly felt like I was going to get. I had connections. I crushed the interview. Everything seemed to line up. I was so excited about it. I remember telling people, “I think this is it.” I had already started picturing what my life would look like on the other side of that yes.

And then I didn’t get the job.

At the time, I was so disappointed. I remember sitting with that rejection and genuinely wrestling with God over it, asking Him why He would let me get so close to something just to close the door. But about three months later, I got an absolutely incredible opportunity,  one I never would have been able to take if I’d gotten that first job. The timing wouldn’t have worked. The doors wouldn’t have been open. Looking back, I can see exactly what God was doing. At the time, I just thought He had said no. He was actually saying, “Wait. I have something better.”

That lesson has followed me ever since. Every time I face a closed door now, I try to remember that a closed door from God is never the end of the story. It’s just a redirection I can’t see the full purpose of yet.

Now, don’t hear me wrong, I still have areas where I struggle to trust. I still have things I have to surrender to the Lord daily. There are still moments where my flesh wants to grip tightly to an outcome and refuses to let go easily. But isn’t that life? We learn. We grow. We evolve. We change. We never really “arrive.” We’re just continually becoming more like Jesus and learning to trust Him a little more along the way.

What Stepping Out Actually Requires

I want to be honest with you about something, because I don’t want this to come across as if faith means throwing caution to the wind and doing whatever feels exciting in the moment. That’s not what I’m saying.

Stepping out in faith doesn’t mean ignoring wisdom. It doesn’t mean skipping counsel from people you trust. It doesn’t mean making an impulsive decision and slapping God’s name on it after the fact to justify it. Proverbs 15:22 reminds us that “plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Wisdom and faith aren’t opposites, they work together.

What it does mean is refusing to let fear be the deciding vote. It means praying, seeking godly counsel, weighing the wisdom in front of you, and then — when you’ve done all that being willing to move even without a hundred percent certainty. Because here’s the truth: you will almost never have a hundred percent certainty this side of heaven. If you wait for that, you’ll wait forever.

Lean Into It

So if there’s something that’s been nudging at your heart while you’ve been reading this… you know what it is.

Lean into it.

Be wise. Pray about it. Seek counsel. Make sure you’re not ignoring wisdom or common sense. But don’t let fear make the decision for you.

Take the risk. Take the next step. Walk in faith.

And then watch Him show up.

I don’t know what your specific “thing” is today. But I know that whatever it is, it’s been sitting there long enough. And I know that the version of you on the other side of that step, the one who said yes, who moved even while afraid, who trusted the gracious Father who redirects our steps when we get it wrong  is going to look back and understand something you can’t fully see yet.

You’re going to look back and see His hand in it. You’re going to see how He was working even in the waiting, even in the uncertainty, even in the moments you weren’t sure you’d heard Him right at all.

Because if you never step out in faith… how will you ever get to watch the Lord move?