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.

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?”

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.

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.

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