Skip to main content

Be Faithful

From as early as I can remember, I have been told that I would be in ministry. Despite my greatest efforts, these predictions were true. The road to where I am now has been an interesting one. I have made mistakes, I have had successes, I have hurt people, I have been hurt, I have run from God and to God, I have quit and I have endured.

A good friend of mine recently told me that the best thing I can do in spite of circumstances as I perceive them is be faithful. Interestingly, he did not specify what I was to be faithful to. He simply said "be faithful." 1 Samuel 12:24 says to "fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart." The fear of God in me spurs me into a sense of awe and wonder of who He truly is. He is more than God - He is my Father, my Friend, my Confidant, my Lover, my Savior, my Redeemer. Because of who He is, I choose to serve him and be committed to Him - with all that I have to give. So when my friend tells me to be faithful, I hear "do not forget what God has called you to do and honor those you serve with your faithfulness to God."

No matter what God has called us to do, He has called us to be faithful in it. In 1 Thes. 5:24 it reads "He who has called you is faithful and will do it." This reference in context is talking about the entire sanctification of our life but is also a reminder that God, who called you and me to His service, will be faithful to us. In fact, His faith in us is often greater than our faith in ourselves. But that's what makes Him God. Without His faith in us, we would be nothing - I would be nothing. Thank God for His faithfulness in me. May my faithfulness in God be exemplified in my service to His church.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em

 I did not grow up throwing punches with schoolmates or with siblings. I did not experience violence in my home as a child. I was never encouraged to throw the first punch, or any punch for that matter. My memories of physical altercations with another person are limited to one specific instance from my junior high years, and the result of my choosing to resort to throwing a punch was not entirely positive. Yes, I did "solve" my problem on one hand, but I created new problems on the other.  There is certainly a culture that exists in our world that promotes violence as the answer to solving problems. I have a 5 and 7 year old - believe me, some people think that hitting is the only way to fix something. But outside of child's play and sibling bickering, there is a much more damaging culture that promotes "fixing" whatever problem one might have by exerting physical prowess or at least the threat of exertion. It is not limited to one section of culture or even so...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Captivity of Fear

Fear holds you captive. By this, I mean that when we are afraid, it holds us in a restricted position. What we could have possibly done, we can do no longer, or at least not to the original potential. My wife sometimes shares a story of fear that she has related to the abnormally large cockroaches that we would sometimes encounter when we lived in Hawaii. Truthfully, they were water bugs, but their similarity to a cockroach was remarkable, especially in a dimly lit situation. On one occasion, a water bug had taken up residence in a door frame that she needed to pass through, but the mere fact that it was in that door frame was nearly enough to keep her from going through. She eventually mustered up the gumption and ran through the door. Her fear nearly kept her from doing what she needed to do, even though that particular task was not necessarily a noble one. In comparison, the prophet Jeremiah was given a task by God to warn Israel of the coming judgment of God. The judgment was roote...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hurt People Hurt People

I recently heard this familiar phrase. It was one that I have heard before, but it had been some time. When I heard it, I nodded my head in agreement as I processed all that this meant. People who get hurt, for any number of reasons, are inclined to then go and hurt someone else. If you say or do something that causes another person to hurt, then there is a high probability - according to this saying - that they are going to go and do the same to someone else.  The more I thought about this phrase over the course of the week, the more I came to realize how it has no place inside the Kingdom mindset or in the life of a Christian. It is certainly true that all of us are subject to being hurt at times in our lives. This hurt comes through the insensitivity of others, through the direct persecution of others, and it often comes through the actions of others that were never meant to harm at all. In some cases, perhaps, the actions of others were meant to help - either your situation or ...
Post a Comment
Read more