Living by faith introduces a tension foreign to the normal flow of human life.

    God created humanity with a natural inclination to find the simplest, the most understandable, the most predictable, the least costly, and the safest way to accomplish routine tasks in life. This is why we have automatic washing machines rather than scrub boards and automobiles rather than animal-drawn carts. It is also why society has developed many of its institutions. Banks replace buried tin cans as a safe repository of money and courts of law replace vigilantism. This tendency is important to human survival and is entirely appropriate when properly used.

    Living by faith often forces the believer into nonconformity with this normal human tendency. Rather than responding in the same way others in society will to an impending crisis, the believer living by faith will feel obligated to seek God's will before taking direct action. To add further uncertainty to the crisis, God may direct the believer to react in a way that does not seem to protect personal interests. Finally, living by faith will require the believer to wait and allow God to respond in His own time.

    By its very nature, living by faith is often oriented toward choosing the most difficult, the least understandable, the least predictable, the most costly, and the most risky way to face the severest crises of life. This is done so that we might learn how to trust God more so that, in turn, we can face even greater difficulty, deal with more unknowns, and face increased personal risk!

    What has just been said is important. If you are intent on learning to live by faith, a tension will be introduced into your life that is contrary to normal human expectation. You should not be surprised if you begin to grapple with issues you never experienced when you were content with a comfortable Christian life. Understand that living by faith will force you to rethink morés (customs or manners) in your society and your personal response to them.

    Because that process in your life of faith will be very personal, you will often receive little guidance from either your secular or Christian peers. You will become less able to rely on standardized and socially accepted behavior. Again, this is an area in which you will face personal risk. You will be charting new directions in your life, and you will be prone to making mistakes.

    This tension in a life of faith should give you insight into the extent of sin's influence on human nature. At the very core of our being, we are in rebellion against God. Our human nature compels us to trust ourselves and our society rather than God.

    This is also why you—even as a believer—are still incapable of loving or trusting God in your own strength. Your human nature prevents it. It is only when you allow God to do that work in you that you become capable of loving Him, trusting Him, or living a godly life.

    We can credit God with giving us the natural tendency to simplify life and make it more understandable, even though living by faith will supersede that tendency in certain respects. In what is called common grace, God has so endowed the human spirit that it can survive in a fallen world.

    God will not abandon you in this process. It is of the greatest concern to Almighty God that you learn to live by faith. Jesus is the Author and the Perfecter of your faith. If you will trust Him, He will never fail to lead you to a more mature faith in Him. It is never His purpose to frustrate you as you learn to trust Him. However, it is His purpose that you rely less on the conventional means that your society provides and more directly on Him as a Person.

    If all of these risks and difficulties are certain, why would anyone purposely attempt to live by faith? Certainly not because the life of faith will be one of ease. My own answer is simply this: I want to learn to trust Jesus because I love Him, and because I love Him, I want to know Him better. That is why I want to live by faith.