We are into our 8th week of our study on the fruits of spirit and are slowly drawing to a close. Even though we still have one more week, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for taking this journey with me. I pray you have grown through these weeks of meditating on God's word and filling your "spiritual basket" to overflowing.
Now...on to week 8: FAITHFULNESS.
On day one of this week we started with a scripture in 2 Chronicles. In chapter 19, Jehoshephat (also known as Jehosephat) had decided to send priests and leaders to be judges in his sted to various parts of the national Israel and as he sent them forth he gave them these instructions is verse 9:
"You must always act in the fear of the Lord, with faithfulness and an undivided heart."
When I was pondering this scripture this week, I kept coming back the idea of "faithfulness" within the context of marriage. No husband or wife can make good decisions and be faithful to their spouse if their heart is divided.
The same went for the judges of Israel and still holds true for us today. We can not be faithful to Christ if our hearts are divided. Matthew and Luke both state that no one can serve two masters.Yes...they were talking about God vs. money, but money can be replaced with career or hobby or sometimes even family, if we choose to use our family as an excuse not to spend time with God.
If God's command to his first leaders was about the faithfulness of the heart, how can we believe we are called to any less?
Psalm 119:89 & 91 even say "Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven." and "Your regulations remain true to this day for everything serves your plan", respectively.
And sandwiched in the middle of those verses is that word again-faithfulness.But, this time it is not a reminder to us to be faithful. Instead, it is a reminder of his faithfulness to every generation (vs 90.)
Think about that....His faithfulness extends to every generation. The fact that it extends to every generation is the very definition of faithfulness. Being faithful means to be steady and constant.
So why, in our times of need, is it so easy to forget that constant means constant. You are not an exception to his rule of faithfulness!
Your situation is not new to him and neither is your sin.
Proverbs 16:6 says "Unfailing Love and faithfulness make atonement for sin. By fearing the Lord, people avoid sin."
It's his faithfulness to keep his promise of the cross is our cure for sin. And to take it one step farther we're told that even though the price was paid for our sin, if we choose to have a (healthy) fear of the Lord, it would help us to avoid sin altogether.
Sometime in the course of history, I'm sure God has thrown up his hands and wanted to it quits but Jesus, seated at his right hand, has talked him back from the ledge and reminded him of his promise to be faithful and forgive our sins.
OK...maybe not. But you get the idea? It's through his constant faithfulness and unfailing love that we can continually mess up and still attain heaven and live a privileged life on this earth as God's children while on earth.
And it's a message that too many times, even thousands of years ago, fell by the wayside in history of the children of Israel. they would turn to idols and false gods every few generations. Why?
Because one generation did not tell the next generation about the faithfulness of God and is doing so, condemned the younger generation to wonder in a spiritual desert, complete with mirages of righteousness. Since they were not instructed in rights/wrongs, they believed what they were doing was right!
That's why Isaiah 38:19a admonishes "The father to the children shall make known they truth (or faithfulness."
How else will they know if they don't learn it from us?
If we don't, we run the risk of becoming like the children of Israel in Hosea 4:1a, 3. The prophet Hosea, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit said, "There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land, ....that is why your land is in mourning and everyone is wasting away. Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing."
Not only would future generations suffer, but the word says that even the very earth will begin to mourn the lose of the knowledge of Christ from among his people.
Look at America now...We've lost so many our fundamental truths that this country was founded on and we are slowly watching a nation that was once "once nation under God" turn into a land of mourning because there is no knowledge and our land is wasting away because of it.
God's faithfulness is constant and applicable to all generations for the continual atonement for our sins, but if we choose not to tell them, we are sentencing them and all future generations to a future of a dying land.
What can we do to remember God's faithfulness? (These might, of course, be obvious, but it never hurts to be reminded of what we SHOULD be doing or what we COULD be doing better.)
1) Keep a faithfulness journal. Having your own personal experiences or experiences of those close to you to look back on can buoy your faith during seasons of uncertainty.
2) Talk about God's faithfulness. To your kids. To your friends. To unsaved friends. Whoever will listen! Much like journeling, keeping stories of God's faithfulness on the tip of your tongue keeps them in the front of your mind and not pushed back to places of shadow. Doing so will make it harder for Satan to push a wedge between you and God during those hard times.
3) Continually be in the word! Next to your own personal experiences, reading first hand accounts of his faithfulness and how it has not changed in all these years since the words of the Bible were penned is an amazing experiences. His love for Adama & Eve, Moses, Hosea, James, Luke, Paul, Rehab, David, Timothy and every other person in the bible (named or unnamed) is the same love he holds for you and obvious faithfulness in the pages of scripture are promises to you and not just mere stories.
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