We often think faithfulness is exemplified in big life decisions and momentous occasions—in the significant ethical and obedience questions of life—when our character is tested and our faith manifested. Have you ever wondered what you would do in a critical moment when your faith is tested? Imagine being forced to renounce your hope in Christ to save your life. Many through the ages—and still today—face this trial. Will we answer similarly to Polycarp? Charged to renounce Christ, he responded: “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me any injury. How then can I blaspheme my Saviour?”
It’s not only in the major decisions that faithfulness is revealed.
Certainly, such moments test our faithfulness. However, an excellent litmus test of what we would do in these extreme circumstances is what we do in the day-to-day when we face challenging decisions, albeit not life-threatening. In other words, our daily faithfulness indicates what we’d do when threatened by great cost, or even death, for Christ.
Ordinary Faithfulness
We encounter ethical dilemmas in everyday scenarios: how to discipline a sullen teen; what to say to an underperforming colleague; how to manage our finances; or our response to a rude driver. Every moment matters on this faith journey—even the humdrum. It’s not only in the major decisions that faithfulness is revealed.
Faithfulness in the minutia matters.
To adapt something we recently heard from a marriage seminar: faithfulness in the minutia matters. Just as the most resilient and joyful marriages are those where a million little things are done for one another, our relationship with God is no different. Many small moments produce intimacy, growing us closer together.
Thus, our heart’s inclination matters when changing the car’s oil, fixing a hem, or singing our favourite song. Devotion to God in the humdrum of life is a challenge because this is when our character is refined. Everyday worship, obedience, and faithfulness can be as confronting and challenging as those life-defining decisions. It’s tempting to think that minor acts of obedience are unimportant. But they are the very circumstances that yield patience, kindness and the Spirit’s fruit (Galatians 5:22-25).
Godliness in the Daily Grind
The words of Brother Lawrence, a monk whose life was filled with menial tasks, are arresting. “O Lord of pots and pans and things, since I have no time to be a great saint by doing lovely things, or watching late with Thee, or dreaming in the dawn light, or storming Heaven’s gates, make me a saint by getting meals, and washing up the plates.”
Lawrence understood that he was called to yield to God’s work amid mundane responsibilities. His head told him that he needed to do significant things for God. But in his heart, he knew that personal holiness mattered to God, irrespective of the ‘greatness’ of the task.
We can be faithful irrespective of the ‘greatness’ of the task.
So Paul reminds us that it is God’s power at work in us, to renew us daily (Romans 12:1-2); elsewhere he exhorts us to be careful how we live (Ephesians 5:15-16). Virtues are settled patterns and habits of good actions and proper emotions, while vices are bad actions and improper emotions. We need to pray for renewed minds and build into our lives habits that are aligned with our primary goal to please God. To use a modern buzzword, we need ‘atomic habits’, where incremental, minuscule changes cumulatively have a massive impact.
Everyday Blessings
A truly blessed life, filled with joy and peace, will be experienced through our commonplace minor actions and decisions. We have the Holy Spirit to help us weave this into the rhythm of everyday life. Reorienting our faithfulness may take only five minutes at the beginning of each day; or ten minutes during a lunch break; or when your baby has eventually fallen asleep before you dive into the endless list of to-do items, social media, or Netflix. It is humbling to realise that we’re actually being refined in the moments that don’t seem significant, dramatic or noteworthy.
We’re being refined in the moments that don’t seem significant or noteworthy.
How is God refining us in our closest relationships? How much easier is it to speak kindly with a stranger on the bus than with a family member who tested our patience just this morning? What does it say about the state of my heart, that I would naturally go to scroll mindlessly on my phone, rather than seek a prayerful moment with our all-powerful God?
We can pray with Moses that the Lord would teach us to number our days, hours, and minutes so that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). That we would live holy and godly lives, especially in light of the brevity of life and Jesus’ promised return (2 Peter 3:11-12). With the ancient hymn writer, we might pray: “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise.”
