FAITHFUL

I have been thinking about what Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy herein

2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful – for He cannot deny Himself.”

Hebrews builds on this concept of a faithful God and people who by faith, acquired all that had been promised to them. You probably know about the famous wall of fame in Hebrews 11 which lists all these people who dared to hope in a very faithful God. Hebrews 6 says that God cannot lie, nor can He break an unconditional promise that He said He would fulfill. Every covenant He made is kept. Every promise or foretelling has or will come true.

Now when God made a promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater than himself, he swore an oath on his own integrity to keep the promise as sure as God exists! So he said, “Have no doubt, I promise to bless you over and over, and give you a son and multiply you without measure!” So Abraham waited patiently in faith and succeeded in seeing the promise fulfilled. It is very common for people to swear an oath by something greater than themselves, for the oath will confirm their statements and end all dispute. So in the same way, God wanted to end all doubt and confirm it even more forcefully to those who would inherit his promises. His purpose was unchangeable, so God added his vow to the promise. So it is impossible for God to lie for we know that his promise and his vow will never change! And now we have run into his heart to hide ourselves in his faithfulness. This is where we find his strength and comfort, for he empowers us to seize what has already been established ahead of time—an unshakeable hope! We have this certain hope like a strong, unbreakable anchor holding our souls to God himself. Our anchor of hope is fastened to the mercy seat which sits in the heavenly realm beyond the sacred threshold, and where Jesus, our forerunner, has gone in before us. He is now and forever our royal Priest like Melchizedek.
Hebrews 6:13‭-‬20 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/heb.6.13-20.TPT

We also know that we are created in the image and likeness of God. I’d also like to believe that when God created us, His idea was for us to be His representatives here on earth in everything that we do such that when people see us, they see God. This means that we are to bear fruit and exhibit attributes that would be associated with the knowledge of God such as faithfulness. You see, faithfulness is defined as the concept of unfailingly remaining loyal to someone or something, and putting that loyalty into consistent practice regardless of extenuating circumstances.

What does faithfulness mean for us?

We’ve probably become accustomed to grand gestures, those ones that make for news and trend on social media, that we might be tempted to take for granted those moments that don’t make it to social media. But there is nothing fancy about faithfulness. If anything faithfulness is demonstrated in the small everyday ways that never make it to social media.

Perhaps faithfulness for a mom with a young baby means waking up in the middle of the night to attend to that child even though you walk through the corridors with eyes half closed because you don’t want to lose your sleep. Maybe faithfulness is in consistently teaching this child certain values without losing hope. Maybe faithfulness is in helping the children with their homework without getting agitated. That you have worked on BODMAS for a whole week but the child keeps forgetting a step. So you faithfully repeat it until they get it.

Maybe faithfulness for a wife means preparing dinner almost every other night without fail. Sometimes you will get home and the only thing that you want to do is sleep but you sacrifice your comfort for the sake of your family. Maybe you’ve gone an extra mile, signed up for a cooking class ,invested hours in preparing a special meal for the family and all your effort goes unnoticed but you keep doing it, over and over and over again because that’s the high call of faithfulness.

Maybe faithfulness for a child is in taking care of their sickly, elderly parents. That you create time for their regular check ups and accompany them for the check up. That you choose to stay with them even when there is an option of taking them to a home. Maybe it is in allowing them to live all their God-given days even though the doctors have said that there is no cure for what they are suffering from and the doctors advocate for mercy killing. That you don’t see it as a burden but a privilege to take care of them even if it means holding their hand until Jesus takes it from you, like when a dad gives his daughter’s hand in marriage to a young man pursuing her.

Maybe faithfulness is in choosing to love well even though you don’t feel loved well. Oh the murky waters that are relationships. But you keep doing good anyway… You keep your end of the bargain because when you made the vows, you vowed before God with no conditions attached to the vow. That a husband loves a wife who is seemingly unlovable or the wife submits to a husband who doesn’t create a favorable environment for her to submit. That we consistently do these things even when people would understand when we did otherwise.

But maybe faithfulness is in using your gifts for the glory of God. You invest time in your relationship with God so you know what He expects of you and how well you can serve Him in that space. You keep doing the thing that He has asked you to do regardless of how small it may seem. You keep reminding that friend who every so often is in trouble that God loves them deeply and pursues them relentlessly. That you keep serving behind the scenes for as long as God will have you there even though you feel like you’d serve God better on the podium.

The price

The scars whisper of His glory. The scars mean that we are growing, and the biggest scars prove His faithfulness all the more.

Katie Davis

Daring to Hope

I think of God and I think of process. Everything that He does is in light of the bigger picture: eternity. In the line of fulfilling all that God has called us to do, we will be scarred deeply. He might ask us to take care of a sick relative. We will faithfully take care of them while trusting for their healing but He might call them to Himself. In our interaction with people we are guaranteed to get hurt because deep within us we are all sinners in need of a savior. And it will hurt… Deeply. But we can trust our faithful creator to take care of us: He will provide what we need, when we need it. The scars will represent our obedience; but even better, these scars will prove His faithfulness all the more.

God will give you a place to inhabit. It is for you to become attentive to what is there where you are; to what He is calling you to be faithful in. This means that to dwell knowledgeably and hospitably in and toward the place God gives you is to glorify him. God will give you a few things that he intends for you to do in your inhabited place and with those people. To do what God gives you to do is to strengthen the common good and to glorify him.

May our hearts be lifted to Him even as we honor the call to be faithful in our lives.

With love,

Quintesence