Live By Faith

I’m not the best at drinking water and staying hydrated. I usually carry a water bottle to work with me, but since the quarantine started, i’ve taken to leaving it in the fridge. And even when working, i’d usually only drink about 32 ounces a day.

My fiancée, on the other hand, carries a water bottle with her everywhere she goes. She’s always refilling it throughout the day. She’s always staying hydrated.

This got me thinking, especially as quarantine is technically still happening. Because i’m still unemployed, the stress and fear and doubt are starting to get me.

Before quarantine started, i had a plan. I knew what 2020 was going to look like for me. I had a job, a steady income, and i was planning on proposing in the not-so-distant future. Now i’m engaged, but due to current events, my other plans are pretty much in shambles.

I don’t know precisely what God is teaching me right now, but if it’s anything like my past experiences, it is that i need to trust Him more. This has been the theme of my life since at least the spring of 2016.

And as i continued my Bible reading plan this week, God led me to Habakkuk. Habakkuk 2:4 says:

Look, his ego is inflated;
he is without integrity.
But the righteous one will live by his faith.

There is a lot of context behind this passage that i will be looking into in the coming days and months here on the blog, but suffice it to say that i need to live by faith.

This verse becomes a central tenet of New Testament theology and Christian living. I need to live by faith.

When i have all my plans laid out in perfect order, i can let my ego take over. God says through Habakkuk that this destroys my integrity. Whether this means pride itself ruins a person’s integrity, or when pride is shattered, it leads people to live with a lack of integrity–it doesn’t matter. If i’m not living by faith, then i’m not living with integrity.

Integrity matters to me. It matters a lot. It goes hand-in-hand with the fact that inconsistency is my biggest pet peeve. As such, if i am convicted of a lack of integrity, i need to do something about it.

This goes back to the water thing i was discussing at the beginning of this post.

If the integrous, righteous person lives by faith, then it follows that the integrous, righteous person relies on God. It’s not enough to just do twenty minutes of quiet time every morning or evening. I must treat God and His Word like i treat food and water. (Better than i treat food and water.)

. . . man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Deuteronomy 8:3b (HCSB)

I need to be more like my fiancée in this respect. But in a spiritual sense. I need to be quick to drink from the well of God’s Word and prayer. I can’t go through my whole day and expect to properly honor God by only spending thirty minutes or so between Bible reading and prayer.

I need to live by faith by humbling myself and dropping to my knees whenever necessary.

If i do this, i will have more clarity for the future, integrity will follow naturally, and i will overflow with joy.

I will triumph in Yahweh;
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
Yahweh my Lord is my strength;
He makes my feet like those of a deer
and enables me to walk on mountain heights!

Habakkuk 3:18-19 (HCSB)

In this with you.

Soli Deo Gloria
Sola Scriptura
Sola Fide

Thanks for reading.