"Faithfulness" carries a lot of weight.

For some, it’s become a sense of identity—how they define themselves. For others, it’s tied to a sense of fear, seen as the way God measures our love for Him. And for many, it’s a mark they secretly feel unable to hit, carrying the shame to prove it.

If I’m honest, I’ve done time in all these work camps.

It’s no wonder, then, why Lark—working to give faith its freedom back, is out to give faith its meaning back.

Truth be told, to be faithful is to be full of faith—meaning you’re trusting in who Jesus already is for you and everyone else, not in what you’re doing or achieving. In short: if our faith is in what we can see, then we’re practicing religion, not faith.

As 2 Corinthians 4:18 puts it: “We fix our eyes not on what is seen [our efforts or circumstances], but on what is unseen [Jesus], since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” This is the very essence of belief; it’s about “walking by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

This kind of news ushers in the peace and rest Jesus promised.

Faith isn’t negated by human emotions like anxiety or ambition. To be clear, these human struggles aren’t disqualifiers—God loves us because He “is love” (1 John 4:8). Instead, knowing that, we are free to see that neither anxiety nor ambition has any place in faith because both focus on what we’re not seeing and what we’re striving to do, rather than on trusting Jesus to be our very union with God—despite what we feel.

Faith Is Trust, Not Toil

When I say this, someone will often respond—as I did for years—with, “Even the demons believe,” as if this discredits simple faith. It’s true—“even the demons believe” in who Jesus is (James 2:19). And so, in the name of what we think is faithful, we set out to behave unlike the demons.

In this case, we need to remember that demons aren’t trusting in Jesus for their union with God—and that’s the point! Thinking we need to more than trust Jesus is faithless, and the very thing the demons believed.

Feeling like this is some kind of "cheap grace," some quote Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who calls on me shall enter the kingdom of God, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

On the surface, it sounds like one more call to prove our faith through efforts to straighten up and fly right. But consider this: the One who spoke these words—Jesus—declared that the “will of the Father” is “to believe in the Son whom He sent” (John 6:29).

Yeah, the “will of the Father” isn’t about you or me becoming like Jesus or someone for Him. It’s about trusting in who Jesus already is and has always been for you. Anything contrary to this renders Jesus’ "reconciliation of all things" a lie—and that’s not good news for anyone acquainted with their own humanity (Colossians 1:20).

Hearing something this scandalous, it’s easy to see why the religious leaders had Jesus killed. There’s just no way to differentiate, measure, or validate ourselves in this truth. It's also easy to see why we—in a culture built on the pursuit of control—have legitimate questions.

So check out our free primer: When Faith Is Freedom. It’s a short, fun read that gets practical about the difference between practicing faith in who Jesus is and practicing a religion that uses His name.

This Primer can be accessed through your free account on the Larksite (scroll down past the videos). If you don't have an account yet, create one today with the link below.

Cheers!