Risk Vs. Benefit

My son is a senior in the chemical industrial hygiene program at the University of North Alabama (which kind of makes this former chemistry teacher proud!). He has enlightened me about a concept called “Risk Versus Benefit”. Risk versus Benefit involves weighing the negative risks associated with a particular activity against the potential benefits the activity would reap. We make these decisions almost everyday without really thinking about them. For example, we all know it is “risky” to get in a car and go to work, but the benefits of the paycheck far out-weigh those risks.


I started thinking about this concept in spiritual terms. What is it that sometimes holds us back from our FULL potential toward advancing the Kingdom? I contend that at times it is fear of failure, in other words, the risks outweigh the benefits! We all fail at times – even in trying to do God’s work – but we do not fail every time! But we let that “one time” keep us from stepping out the “next time”.  We shrink back in fear of falling face down again. Sometimes our failures are to do just that – to bring us to a place of face-down worship where we recognize our total dependence on God.


Here’s the thing – God is not counting our failures (can I get an amen?)! He is counting our faithfulness. It is not our good works, successful or not, that save us. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8).  Case in point – Abraham. If any one in  biblical history could have been saved by works, it was him. However, the Apostle Paul says over and over in Romans 4 that Abraham’s faith was “reckoned” as righteousness – not his works! “Reckon” is an accounting term that means credited. Abraham’s faith was credited as righteousness. 


Did Abraham take tremendous risks? Absolutely – he left his home when God told him to get up and go; he believed God’s promise that his seed would produce many offspring in his old age; he willingly took his son of promise, Isaac, to the mountain to be sacrificed as God told him. Yes, I would say Abraham was a risk taker. Oh, but the benefits he, and we, harvested. For it was through his seed that the Messiah was eventually born – Abraham was the Father of the Jewish nation. Every time Abraham stepped out in faith on all of these issues, God was crediting his holy account with righteousness!


I was challenged today by a great friend to step out a little further on the edge of faith. I must admit that I have been “ascared”, as we say in the south, to say to the mountains that are in the way of Kingdom work, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you’. (Matt. 17:20).  I have decided to believe God, not just to believe “in Him”.


Faith believes what God has initiated. When our desires match up with His, we can trust that what we hear or sense in our spirit is of God. Even if it we don’t perform it perfectly, we will still delight our Abba Father (maybe even make Him grin) that we have demonstrated faith in the attempt – recall Peter walking on the water. Faith in God will make things happen that can’t;  will cause you to become someone you never thought you could be; and the impossible becomes possible (Matt. 19:26).  So come on – get out on the edge of faith where the wind is in your hair and the bugs are in your teeth – you will never be bored! The benefits far outweigh the risks!