You will miss God's purpose for your life of faith if you believe that the primary purpose of faith is to accomplish ministry. It is not! The reason God wants you to learn to live by faith is so that your everyday life will please Him as you trust Him daily.

    If you are a stay-at-home mom, your life of faith will take place in your home and family. If you work in the trades, then it is in the context of your life as a plumber, a cement mason, a mechanical contractor, or whatever else, that He wants to see you live by faith. If you are a professional, then it is at your receptionist's desk, in your office cubicle, at your CAD drafting station, at your hospital, or within the professional context of your work where your life of faith must be lived.

    Each of us also has responsibilities within our family and community life as well as other obligations and leisure activities that fill our life. These are also the areas in which God wants us to live by faith.

    Any area of your work or personal life in which you must make decisions is an area in which you may apply faith. If you own your own business, there will be countless times in which you will find that living by faith will require a business ethic different than the accepted norm. You will need to rely heavily on God when you take risks because of your desire to honor Him.

    Family finances, children's schooling, retirement living, or insurance coverage will also be areas of decision that give ample opportunity to exercise faith.

    Living by faith is an all-encompassing way of life. You will not be able to compartmentalize ministry as something requiring faith, while personal finances and similar areas are done without faith. If you are intent on pursuing faith, it will touch every area of your life.

    In all probability, God will not deal simultaneously with every potential faith issue in your life.

    As you look for opportunities to trust God more in your everyday life, you are, in fact, looking for opportunities to trust yourself less. You must realize where this unavoidable reality will likely take you.

    In a harsh year starting in December 2004, South East Asia, North and South America, and Pakistan all experienced natural disasters which took many lives. During this time we heard many sermons attempting to explain how a "good" God can allow such terrible things. A number of reasons were given as to why God is still good in spite of the deaths and extreme hardship for those affected.

    Our great shortcoming in evaluating God's role in catastrophic events is that we have a distorted expectation of God. The foundation premise among American Christians is that God must give each of us that which is comfortable, enjoyable, healthful, and financially profitable. Any deviation from that expectation then requires an explanation as to why God is still "good."

    On the other hand, if we understand that God's ultimate desire is to cause humanity to come to Him in salvation, followed by a growing reliance on Him, we will have entirely different expectations. We then understand that life will be filled with adversity beyond our ability to cope. It will be a life of increasing dependence on Him when we are incapable of providing for ourselves. Equally, we can expect that God will do the same in others' lives. He will take some through terrible health crises, others through the state prison systems, and some through tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, auto accidents, and financial losses. He does not do this because He is cruel. He does this because His objective is that we will learn to trust Him in the context of a fallen world. At the same time, we will also see His marvelous provision and protection through that same adversity.

    Verify this among your Christian peers. How many have either come to salvation, or experienced significant growth during times of extreme adversity? In contrast, how many among those who are living a comfortable and untroubled life are actively growing in Christ?

    This is not a masochistic approach to life. We need to carefully avoid making life any more difficult than it already is. Yet, if we want to live by faith, then we must permit Jesus to lead us through anything He chooses in order to cause us to trust Him more.