How do we live by faith in the little decisions like what should I eat for lunch, or should I wear pants to work? I had a good question posed about my ‘How Do I Live By Faith?’ devotional series and I thought it’d be good to answer it as a devotional.  It has to do with a Big Mac.

“I’m confused about how you define decisions not explicitly based on Scripture as sin. Are you saying God’s Word will tell you whether or not to eat the Big Mac, which shirt to pick out at the store?”

Good question.  Let’s start off with some verses so it can give us some direction where we need to go with our answer.

Romans 14:23 Everything that does not come from faith is sin.

2 Timothy 3[16] All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, [17] so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So these two verses combined ultimately say we need to make decisions by faith, and that Bible covers all the bases in life so there is some biblical principle that covers whatever decisions we have to make.

The small decisions we make are actually part of some larger principle.

To address to question about buying a Big Mac, one bigger principle is stewardship of the body He’s given you. We’d look to a verse like 1 Cor 6:[19] where it says, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit”. Does God want me to eat something with 540 calories and 45% of the recommended daily fat intake?  Well maybe it’ll be fine if you exercise a lot and generally eat well.  But what if you’re morbidly obese and your idea of exercise is walking to the fridge? And that’s just one of the questions we can ask about the Big Mac. 

There’s also the question of should we spend our money on a Big Mac?  This larger principle here is stewardship of the resources He’s given you. So let’s say you’re dirt poor and you have $5 left to feed you and your family of four.  Should you buy one Big Mac to feed them? The Biblical principle of stewardship would say, “No,” but that doesn’t mean you know what the better option is.  

That’s where you ask for wisdom (James 1:5). So now your decisions is “No, I don’t buy the Big Mac,” and “Instead I will buy two loaves of bread, peanut butter and milk.”

So we can now define living by faith like this: Biblical Principle + Wisdom = Living by Faith

Because principles are carried out by smaller decisions, we have to make sure our principles are Biblical (base it in verses). And we must make sure our wisdom is Godly wisdom.

So what do we do now?

When making a decision, tie it in with a larger Biblical principle – but if you’re having problems thinking of a specific Biblical principle, just pick this overarching principle in Col 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” “Whatever you do” includes the small things, and “for the Lord” assumes your larger goal is glorifying God.

If you ask yourself the question “Is this action consistent with glorifying God?” it’ll point you in the right direction of living by faith.  Couple that with asking for wisdom, then not only with your motive be right, but how it’s done will be more effective.

And now I’m off to order a Big Mac.  But with a diet Coke. Because I obviously need to make wise, faithful decisions.

Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

Take Time To Pray: Ask God to help you be conscious of the decisions you make so they can be pleasing to the Lord. Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness