The great commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.  So St. Paul begins his letter telling us that all creation testifies to the existence of God and the letter of Hebrews tells us that we must believe that God exists and he rewards those who diligently seek him.  So to live by faith requires of us to have a relationship with God.  We do this by stillness and silence, spending time with nature, prayer, and reading God's word (faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rm10:17).  Unless we commit time to God we may be living but not necessarily by faith. 

            The bulk of Romans deals with self and the problem of sin.  The letter to the Ephesians tells us we are saved by grace through faith and that this faith is a gift.  Romans five verse one states that having been justified by faith we have peace with God.  Living by faith means that we have dealt with or are dealing with the sin issue.  We know from Romans three that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and from Romans seven that even when we have been saved we can do things that we hate and not do things that we love and this a consequence of sin dwelling inside of us.  Consequently there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.  So living by faith means we begin by repentance “If we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.(Rm10:9-10)”.  The time it takes to get our act together varies but living by faith means we deal with the sin issue and the consequences of sin.  We deal with sin by confession.  “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1Jn1:9  and the blood of Christ will cleanse us from all sin (1Jn1:7b).

            Finally in Romans twelve we see Paul talking about ministering in the Spirit.  To live by faith means we love our neighbor and we love our neighbor by operating  in the Spirit towards them.  Whether if it is through prophesy or teaching, exhortation or brotherly love living by faith means that we are living in the Spirit and not  fulfilling the lusts of the flesh Gal5:16)  Only God knows how to effectively win the unbeliever and effectively lead the saved.  Living by faith means we live and walk in the Spirit.

            Only by living by faith can we please God for without faith it is impossible to please God and only by love can we fulfill the great commission to make disciples.  So it is important to have faith, the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.  Have the God kind of faith.