While I was growing up, my father had a pattern of behavior that left an indelible mark on my life. It started when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I had worked hard at being a good baseball player, and baseball was very important to me at that time. So, when I joined a little league team and was given the opportunity to pitch, I couldn’t wait for my dad to see me play. I was gonna show him what I could do! Eagerly, I asked if he would come to my next ball game so that he could see me pitch. He said he would ‘definitely’ be there. I was excited, to say the least! When the game started, I looked for my dad in the stands. But he wasn’t there. He’s just a little late, I told myself. After another couple of innings passed, I knew he wasn’t coming. I was very disappointed. Over the course of that baseball season, my dad promised me many times that he would come see me, and I believed him. Unfortunately, he rarely kept any of those promises. After a while, I stopped believing him. In fact, I stopped asking him to come. I didn’t want to be disappointed any longer.
What I learned about my dad from those early encounters was that he was not reliable. I couldn’t trust him to keep his word. He lacked faithfulness. And his inability to be faithful to his promises produced a significant sense of insecurity and apprehension in me. Not being able to trust him created a division between us that lasted for some time. Even after all these years, I can still remember many of the thoughts and feelings that arose from the numerous instances when my dad did not ‘show up’. One of those thoughts I can recall clearly is that I stopped expecting my dad to show up for anything in my life. And when he didn’t, I wasn’t disappointed because I had no expectations or hopes that could be dashed. Over time, this evolved into a self-protecting cynicism that negatively impacted some very important relationships in my life.
I have said all this to make a point about how important it is to be a faithful person, and how damaging it can be to the people in our lives when we fail to be trustworthy. A lack of faithfulness is the root of much human despair: Divorce, Alienation of Friends and Family, Lawsuits, Business Failures, Loss of Self-Respect and Reputation, Anger and Violence, and even Loss of Life, to name a few. When you can’t trust someone, there is no possibility of having a meaningful relationship.
Seeing the Faithful One
Fortunately, the opposite of this is also true. When you can trust someone, someone who is faithful to keep their word, there can be a meaningful relationship, and there often is. This is nowhere truer than with God Himself. It is precisely because God is faithful that we can put our confidence (faith) in Him. When God asks us to seek Him with all of our hearts, He does so knowing we will not be disappointed if we do. In Psalm 23, King David calls God his shepherd. A relationship between sheep and their shepherd is preeminently one of absolute trust. As Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, CSB). In other words, He ‘shows up’. He is faithful. If you put your trust in such a faithful God, you will not be disappointed. (Romans 10:11).
God’s faithfulness is a foundational aspect of His character. But even more, it’s who He is. As the apostle Paul said, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”
(2 Timothy 2:13, CSB). God is faithful to his word 100% of the time. If He was unfaithful only once, he would not be God, and we could not trust Him. Just as He cannot be unloving, because He is love. God cannot be unfaithful because He is faithful. He can be no other way. (1 John 4:7-8). Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8). It is because of this we can put our trust and confidence in Him for all things. Be certain of this, we can count on God. He will not fail us. Never!
We Become What We Behold
From this treasure of faithfulness God calls us to be salt and light in our world. (Matthew 5:13-14). Upheld by His steadfast love and grace, we are meant to be the faithful ones who will make the message of the gospel of the kingdom of God visible to our world. Because God is spirit, He is, by nature, invisible. In His wisdom and understanding, God has chosen to become visible through those who believe in Him. The apostle Paul puts it like this, “This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.” He goes on to say, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2, NIV). Will we prove to be faithful, or will we hear the lament voiced in Proverbs 20:6 (ESV) that says, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?”
We all can be faithful as servants and stewards. For it is by grace that we are given the ability to do what God calls us to do. You see, grace is God acting in our lives to enable us to do what we cannot do on our own. He will not leave you to your own devices. He will empower you if you ask Him. You can trust Him to give you opportunities for faithful living, and the power to turn them into acts of obedience. God uses us in our everyday circumstances to prepare us for a life of service. Jesus said, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” (Luke 16:10, ESV) If we trust God and obey His command to be faithful, God will increasingly be able to count on us as vessels He can use to His glory and for the benefit of those around us. It’s hard to imagine that God depends on us. But He does! And when God can count on us to be faithful to His purposes, the world can be changed!
Faithfulness Changes Everything
Think of Hannah, the barren wife of Elkanah, who, by God’s gracious promise, was able to bear a son. She made a vow (promise) to bring her child into God’s service after he was weaned. This child became Israel’s great prophet Samuel, who led Israel during some of its most formative years. He was the most important voice of God to the Jews. What would have happened if Hannah had not been faithful to her promise? It could have changed the direction of an entire nation!
What of Esther, queen to King Ahasuerus of Persia and Media, who, at risk of her own life, kept her promise to go, uninvited, to see the King and plead with him to spare the lives of the Jews under his rule? Her faithfulness resulted in the saving of the lives of every Jewish person in the Persian empire. Clearly, her failure to keep her promise would have certainly meant the end of the Jewish nation in that realm.
How effective and pervasive would the apostle Paul’s message of salvation to the Gentiles have been if he didn’t have faithful partners in the gospel like Silas, Barnabas, Epaphras, and Onesimus? Without their help, perhaps Paul would have succumbed to his many perils, and would not have been able to bring the message to Asia or Greece. There may not have been a church in Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia, or Rome. Faithful women and men have been key characters in the story of God’s faithfulness to His people throughout time. Of course, the greatest example of a person’s faithfulness being the key to changing the world is the willingness of Jesus to persevere through the ultimate suffering of the cross. His faithfulness changed the lives of every person ever born. God’s faithfulness reaches to the skies. (Psalm 36:5).
You and I can significantly impact our world for good as we live faithfully to our calling. Proverbs 28:20 says, “a faithful man will abound in blessings” (ESV). So, we can be dispensers of blessing to a needy world. Let’s heed the urging of the psalmist when he said, “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man” (Proverbs 3:3-4, ESV). AMEN!
