One of the great privileges of doing support-based ministry is you are forced to trust God to provide for you. With it, there are no guarantees, particularly in the economy we have experienced the past four years. You are dependent on the generosity of churches and individuals, whose checks determine how much you get paid on a monthly basis. And as humans do, sometimes they disappoint. They commit to a certain amount, but then fail to follow through. Or they forget to send their checks for a couple of months. Or their circumstances change and they stop support altogether, but do not let you know. The end result is that month in and month out, you have to trust God to provide.
Ultimately, there are no guarantees for anyone who has a job, as many have learned in recent years. And there are no guarantees for students graduating with a college degree that a job in their field will be waiting for them. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are all dependent on God, but not all live by faith.
Living by faith is living in confidence that the Lord has your back. You do not need to worry that He is going to leave you on your own because you know He is going to take care of you. Living by sight, on the other hand, is wringing your hands and looking constantly for evidence that things are going to be okay. And the only time you are content is when things are going exactly the way you want them.
Paul says we live by faith because there isn’t always clear evidence of what we believe and put our hope in. This is why many I have known who have wanted to enter a support-based ministry have encountered great resistance from parents, family, and friends. They think it is crazy to earn a college degree and then, instead of getting a steady paying job, go into something where you are, as many view it, begging for money. In other words, they don’t understand living by faith. And they don’t understand the many benefits of doing it.
Living by faith draws us into a deeper relationship with the Lord because we are placing our trust in Him. And when we put our trust in Him, we experience how faithful He is, and the more we trust Him, the bolder we will live out our faith.
Today, you don’t have to do the work I do to live by faith. You can do it by trusting the Lord to provide for you no matter your circumstance, no matter what things look like at the moment. To live by faith is simply having the confidence God is going to work things out and then living in a way reflecting that.
© Jim Musser 2017
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