“And yet we are saved…”

This refrain plays through my mind as I encounter struggles in my own life and see them in the life of so many Christians who are near and dear to me. We all took that step of faith where we proclaimed we were helplessly dead in our sins and could do nothing but call out to the God of Heaven and Earth to save us and bring us into an eternal relationship with Him. We took that step of faith and maybe we thought that everything else would fall into place. The growing pains I experienced when I realized that God would neither remove me from the battle that is life, nor give me the victory over every struggle I faced the first day I was saved is still fresh in my mind. Listening to a respected leader in our church who I go to for advice and encouragement, I was sternly reminded that the road of faith and dependence on God does not end with salvation. “How were you saved,” he asked. “By faith,” I replied. “And do you think we no longer live by faith now that we are saved?” “No, I guess not.” This book is a collection of the lessons I learned as I came to realize this most basic truth.  — from the Preface

Each chapter in this book will start off with a corresponding key verse. Appropriately, the key verse for the whole book is Proverbs 3:5. As you read through the pages that follow, I want you to ask yourself: “How would I act if I truly obeyed this verse?”