FAITHFULNESS

The LORD is ever and always faithful to His saints. So much so, that we in turn desire to be faithful to Him, which is the reason we are sorrowful when we prove ourselves faithless from time to time.

What are the words that every Christian longs to hear when we will see the LORD face to Face on that day He brings us Home?

MATTHEW 25:21
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

We desire to hear this from the LORD because we desire to please Him out of a heart of love, for all the love that He has expressed to us on the cross, and before and after that.

And what are the words we DEFINITELY DON’T want to hear from the LORD?

LUKE 13:27
But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity [lawlessness]. Unruly, unfaithful, rebellious.

And this for obvious reasons!

On the subject of faithfulness, we will look at the LORD’s faithfulness to us and our faithfulness to Him. Our faithfulness is a response to His own, just like our mutual love for one another:

1 JOHN 4:19
We love him, because he first loved us.

REVELATION 1:5
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

THE LORD’S FAITHFULNESS TO US

The LORD began this work of salvation in us, and He is faithful to complete this work of God in our lives:

1 THESS 5:23-24
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

PHILIPPIANS 1:6
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

God Himself is called “the faithful God” on DEUT 7:9; and He calls us into fellowship with the LORD Jesus Christ by His faithfulness (1 COR 1:9). His faithfulness is extolled by the Psalmist who declares: “Thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds” (PSALM 36:5) and even “to the heavens" (PSALM 89:2)! and the Psalmist associates God’s faithfulness with His salvation (PSALM 40:10), and with His mercy (PSALM 89:1).

His righteousness is coupled together with His faithfulness in ISAIAH 11:5. His counsels according to ISAIAH 25:1 are faithfulness and truth!

The LORD is faithful to provide a way of escape in our temptations (1 COR 10:13): the escape by way of the Refuge and the Rock that is Himself. He Who we flee to for spiritual safety and protection (PSALM 61 and PSALM 62).

If we sin, and we confess it, the LORD is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 JOHN 1:9).

He is faithful to be with us always; His presence will never depart from those who are His: MATT 28:20; HEB 13:5; DEUT 31:6.

The LORD is faithful to chasten and discipline His own that He loves enough to work in us that “peaceable fruit of righteousness” (HEB 12:5-11).

The LORD is faithful in His “great love and mercies” to us:

LAMENTATIONS 3:22-23
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

And His love is ever faithful:

ROMANS 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The LORD is faithful to His Word:

PSALM 119:89-90
89 Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. 90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.

PSALM 138:2
I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

MATTHEW 24:35
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

When the LORD gives His Word, He establishes covenants – and the LORD proves Himself faithful to keep His Word – to Abraham, to David, to His saints in general, and to Israel and His church.

GENESIS 15:7-9, 17-19
7 And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. 8 And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. 18 In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

PSALM 89:34-37
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. 36 His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. 37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

JEREMIAH 32:40
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

The LORD Himself is faithful to His nature: He is immutable, unchanging, absolutely reliable and will never disappoint: He is the ROCK of Holy Integrity!

DEUTERONOMY 32:31a 

For their rock is not as our Rock,

PSALM 18:2, 46
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

As we meditate on and experience God’s faithfulness, let this inspire us and by His Holy Spirit’s enable us to be found faithful to Him in all of our ways.

OUR FAITHFULNESS TO THE LORD

The fruit of the Spirit is love, and one of its attribute along with joy, peace, longsuffering and gentleness is – faith: the Greek word is pistis which means “faith, conviction in belief and reliance upon Christ by the believer”, but it also speaks of the character of God Who is absolutely faithful and One Whose fidelity is perfect. The fruit of the Spirit grown in the life of a believer is likewise pistis, that is faithfulness.

The fruit is born in one who is born of the Spirit, who is led by the Spirit, who regularly reads, meditates on and understands and obeys the Word of God, the Word of God being the seed by which fruit is produced.

Abraham was faithful – GALATIANS 3:9; Moses was faithful – NUMBERS 12:7; Paul was accounted faithful by the LORD – 1 TIMOTHY 1:12; Paul addressed the saints in Ephesus, referring to them as “the faithful in Christ Jesus – EPHESIANS 1:1; also, COL 1:2. These were saints who feared God and believed His Word to the point of living lives of worship and obedience.

The LORD admonishes the saints in Smyrna to be faithful unto death:

REVELATION 2:10
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

For us, the LORD desires that we likewise will be faithful unto death; not necessarily the death of a martyr (though this may be coming soon one day) but faithful in dying to self, crucifying the sinful flesh, allowing Christ’s life to be lived out through us.

CONDITIONS TO DEVELOP FAITHFULNESS

1) Be diligent in the reading, studying and obeying God’s Word.

2) Ensure that you have time with the LORD in prayer, seeking Christ to manifest His life in us. Make reservations for time alone with God.

3) Be attentive in godly fellowship among the saints as we congregate in the church.

4) Submission to God in all things; humbleness towards the LORD; resistance towards Satan, the sinful nature, this fallen world.

VERSE TO MEDITATE ON:

GALATIANS 2:20
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.