Hi how are you all? Last week was meant to be two posts but it will be this week instead. I love writing these and I pray you love reading them. I feel we are connected, even though miles may separate us physically. We are connected in the spirit.
For this post, I just want to draw out another concept that really touched me whilst I was reading it a few weeks ago. It is found in Psalm 37:3. You will remember I posted on a section of Psalm 37 in the last post. In the version I was reading which was English Standard Version, the last part of verse 3 states that we need to befriend faithfulness. That means I need to make faithfulness my friend – my constant companion.
Why is that? Let’s look at the definition of faithfulness first. In most dictionaries it means full of faith. We know from Hebrews 11:6, that without faith it is impossible to please God. That means to please God, we must walk in faithfulness.
How do we do that? Let’s look further at Hebrews 11 to find out, starting at verse 7.
Noah is our first faith man that we will consider. In verse 7, it states that God spoke to Noah and told him to build an ark to save the animals, birds and people as a flood was coming. This sounds okay to us but for Noah, he had never seen rain. Genesis 2: 5 and 6 confirms this. Therefore he needed to trust God and be obedient and that’s the reason faith was accounted to him.
For us, faithfulness means trusting God and obeying even though we can’t see nor understand what the future looks like. Noah was also building for his future. We need to do the same and build an ark to carry us into our future.
Verse 8 tells us about Abraham’s faith journey. We have just done a series of posts about his faith journey in the Steps of Faith posts. What we learn from Abraham is that he went out from his country to a new one, not knowing where he was going. That can happen to us too. God can ask us to take steps in a new direction but not tell us where the end destination is. That is faithfulness. Being faithful when we don’t know or even understand.
Verse 11 tells us about Sarah’s faith journey. She desperately wanted a child but it had never happened for her. Then when she was way past the age of child bearing, God promised her husband a child. But she also had to believe and have faith in God not only for the miracle but the strength to bear the child then raise him. There were no hospitals or emergency departments in those days. Sarah had to know that what God placed inside her was enough to bring the promise to pass. For us, we need to know that the promises that God is birthing in us, we have strength and ability to bring them to pass. That requires faithfulness.
We could talk about Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and the rest. They each bought an element of faithfulness from their stories. Jacob had to humble himself and be reconciled, Isaac reaped a harvest in a famine, Joseph went through trials to reach his destiny, David showed us faithfulness through worship and Jesus showed it to us in every aspect of His life. No wonder faithfulness needs to be our friend.
So who is your friend? Faithfulness – because then we know we are pleasingGod.
Have a great week and keep living the life God intended for you.
Bless you heaps
Karen
Living the life God intended 