There’s a beautiful truth at the heart of the Gospel: becoming a son or daughter of God costs us nothing.

We don’t earn it. We don’t qualify for it. We don’t climb some spiritual ladder to reach it. We simply receive it. Scripture tells us that to all who believe, God gives the right to become His children—not because of anything we’ve done, but because of who He is.

Being a child of God is a gift. It’s grace in its purest form.

So why, then, is walking in faith so incredibly challenging?

Identity vs. Journey

Here’s the tension every believer faces: our identity as God’s children is settled, but our walk of faith is ongoing.

You became a son or daughter the moment you believed. That’s done. That’s secure. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. You didn’t work for it, and you can’t lose it through failure.

But walking in faith? That’s a different story.

Walking requires movement. Walking demands trust—not once, but daily. Walking means putting one foot in front of the other even when the path is unclear, when doubts creep in, when the world pulls you in a thousand different directions.

Being a child is about receiving. Walking is about responding.

Why the Walk Is So Hard

If we’re already accepted, already loved, already enough in God’s eyes—why does faith feel like such a struggle sometimes?

Because walking requires surrender. It’s easy to accept a gift. It’s harder to hand over control of your life, your plans, your timeline. Faith asks us to trust God’s wisdom over our own, and that goes against every instinct we have.

Because walking happens in the unseen. We live in a world that demands proof, evidence, certainty. But faith, by its very nature, is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We’re asked to walk toward a destination we can’t fully see yet.

Because walking is daily. Being born into God’s family happens once. But following Him happens every single morning when you wake up and choose again. It happens in the small, unglamorous moments—when you choose patience over anger, generosity over fear, trust over worry.

Because walking exposes our weakness. As long as we’re standing still, we can hide. But the moment we start walking, we stumble. We fail. We realize how desperately we need grace—not just to save us, but to sustain us.

The Good News Within the Struggle

Here’s what I’ve come to understand: the difficulty of the walk doesn’t cancel out the security of our identity. They exist together.

You are God’s child while you struggle.

You are fully loved while you stumble.

You are completely His while you wrestle with doubt.

The walk of faith is hard not because God is distant, but because transformation is costly. Growth stretches us. Becoming more like Christ means letting go of the parts of ourselves that resist Him. And that process—beautiful as it is—can be painful.

Rest and Walk

Perhaps the secret is learning to do both at the same time: to rest in our identity as beloved children while actively walking in obedience and trust.

We don’t walk to earn God’s love. We walk because of it.

We don’t strive to become His children. We already are. We walk because that’s what children do—they follow their Father, learning His ways, growing in His likeness, trusting that He knows the path even when we don’t.

Being a son or daughter of God is the easiest thing in the world. It was finished at the cross.

Walking in faith is the hardest thing we’ll ever do. And it will take a lifetime.

But here’s the promise that keeps us moving: we don’t walk alone. The same God who made us His children walks beside us, strengthens us when we’re weary, picks us up when we fall, and whispers the truth we so easily forget—

You are mine. Keep walking. I’ve got you.