When I ask the Lord what he wants from me in a certain situation I typically get the answer “be faithful to Me.” Simple, yet complex.
In recent weeks, the Lord has been pressing on me His desire for me to remain faithful to Him in all that I do. For me that can get broken down into several areas: with Him, in His Word, at work, with my writing, in my marriage and as a person of faith. Within all these areas it’s easier for me to focus and break it down to faithfulness in one area at a time. Before I consider that though, it’s always beneficial to search the Scriptures to learn about faithfulness and to test if what I heard was indeed from the Lord.
To begin, we should know the God who is asking for us to be faithful is faithful Himself.
I Corinthians 1:9 - “God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”
Psalm 33:4 - “For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.”
Psalm 36:5 - “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”
(also see Psalm 145:13, 146:6, I John 1:9, 2 Th. 3:3, I Cor. 10:13, Zech. 8:8, etc.)
In addition to the Lord speaking to me about His desire for my own faithfulness, there is Scriptural support that God desires all of His children to be faithful to Him.
In Proverbs we see the importance of faithfulness emphasized, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Prov. 3:3)
Joshua gives a speech to the Israelites and encourages the same virtue, “Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness!” (Joshua 24:14)
And all believers are encouraged in this way from Paul as well, “So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” (I Cor. 4:1-2)
Now, for me I named 6 areas where I believe the Lord is requiring my faithfulness to Him. For you it might be different or maybe you can relate to mine. In order to figure out what faithfulness looks like in each of those situations I, again, turn to Scripture.
I believe to remain a faithful person in relationship to God means I put no other before Him (Exo. 20:3) and I love Him and love others the way He desires (Mt. 22:37). In order for us to know what that love looks like we can gage an idea from the Bible. I Corinthians 13 and Romans 12 are great places to start that will challenge you in every relationship you have on this earth. These chapters tell us what love looks like.
To remain a faithful person in His Word I believe it requires I know His Word and obey it. I shared with you in the last month that one of my favorite passages of all time is Deuteronomy 6:4-9. In these verses we are encouraged and told to talk about God’s Word while we go out, are at home, going for a walk or just sitting around. Deuteronomy tells us the Word of God should be known by us so well it’s as if it was written on our foreheads, tied on our wrists, bound to our necks and written on our houses. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Scripture is our guide for life, showing us the way to live. In order to know it and obey it I must read it and let it direct my paths. And finally, one of my favorite passages to meditate on is Psalm 119: 57, “You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey your words.”
Faithfulness in our work place is one of the most direct verses in the Bible. Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men…” This is hard in practice, but simple in understanding. To be faithful, I must work as if God asked me to do my daily chores in my job.
In my writing I can easily get caught up in the number of people visiting this site or the amount of new, unique, views. Looking at those numbers sucks all the life from me. Writing for this site is out of obedience to God. He has given me an education and passion and has asked me to share it. Period. Lately, I have been comforted by a recent quote from Thomas Merton, “"It does not matter whether or not many read ... so long as it reaches some of the few for whom it is intended." May I be faithful to write for whomever the Lord deems right to read.
For marriage I am told exactly how a godly wife should act and live. By doing so, and obeying Scripture I am confident I am being a faithful child of God. The Bible tells me to be a faithful, godly wife I must have a gentle and quiet spirit, trusting in God (I Peter 3:4-5). In Titus 2 I am instructed to love my husband, live in reverence to God and set an example to younger wives. I must not gossip, but teach what is good; I must be self-controlled, pure, busy at home, kind, and live in submission to my husband. And finally, Ephesians 5 tells me I should respect my husband. (Now, before some of you ladies get hot and bothered that I said “submit” and “respect”, may I remind you we married our spouses for a reason. There should be little problems or hesitation in submitting or respecting your husband. If so, you should not have married them. And if you have already, you must do so anyway, out of reverence for God and so you do not malign the Word of God. (Titus 2:5) )
Last but not least, Scripture is jam-packed, filled to the brim and overflowing with ways a person of faith can show themselves faithful to God. The three passages I refer to are foundational and cover much content. Matthew 20:26-28 tells us to be great in God’s eyes we must put ourselves after others. We are to follow in the footsteps of our Savior “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” Serving others is a major way I can be faithful to God in my own faith journey. Remaining humble is another way believers of Jesus can show their faithfulness to God. Philippians 2 is one of the best chapters on Christ’s example of how to do that. We are to humble ourselves before God and others, “consider others better than ourselves.” (Phil. 2:3) Finally, my all time favorite list of attributes that are asked to clothe a person of faith can be found in Colossians 3:12-14:
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
The reward? The Bible tells us those who do remain faithful gain a few benefits. God will preserve (Ps. 31:30), protect (Prov. 2:8), bless (Prov. 28:20) and reward (I Sam. 26:23) the faithful and promises not to abandon them (Ps. 37:28).
A lot is required of us as we can see throughout Scripture. Feeling overwhelmed or like a faithless follower yet? Be encouraged. God knew when we live out of our human nature and not from His power given to us we are doomed to fail. We are still told, “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful.” (II Timothy 2:13) It is our heart He sees, our motivation, not our actions (I Ch. 28:9). It is God’s righteousness He sees, not our faithlessness. (II Cor. 5:21)
May we learn how to be faithful to the one who is always faithful to us. My hope is that you would try to be a faithful child out of love for God. And when you fail, may you not be discouraged; rather may your gratefulness increase to the One who has covered you with His righteousness. Amen.