Growth Weekly - Faithfulness
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law.”
- Galatians 5:22-23
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I will hope in him.”
- Lamentations 3:22-24
We have little bouts of faith each day. We trust our credit card won’t be decline; we trust the lights to turn on; we trust our car to start. Why do we have faith in these things? We put our trust in these things because of the history we have with them. The card has never been declined; the lights have never not turned on; the car has never not started. Our history with something dictates the amount of faith and trust we have in it.
When we reflect on the fruits of the Spirit we realize that these are not inward focused elements of our personality but outward focused pieces of our character that others experience. In this way, the fruit of faithfulness is not necessarily our ability to have faith but if others find us to be faithful friends. Are you trustworthy? Would someone describe you as reliable? Can people rely on you to do that which you say you will do? Better yet, is your faithfulness a mirror of the faithfulness of God?
It can sometimes be an uphill battle when we talk about faithfulness and the Bible because the Bible is full of stories of how faithful God is and how unfaithful humanity has been. Nonetheless, Paul encourages us that faithfulness is possible in our lives. But why should we, as Christians, be known as trustworthy and reliable people? As it reads in Lamentations, we see that when others experience faithfulness, they start to hope (Lam 3:24). When others find us to be trustworthy, hope is born. Hope is perhaps the most exciting thing that can happen to a person. Yes, salvation is the most important experience, but when a person moves from deep despair to a glimmer of hope, his or her entire world changes! Even more, when we show ourselves to be reliable, it draws us closer together. Who are your best friends? Are they the ones you trust the least or the most? When we are faithful to others we will, consequently, grow closer to each other. Faithfulness opens the door for discipleship and the sharing of the Gospel.
How can you show your faithfulness to others? Much like love, being trustworthy is a daily decision. Each day we choose to be faithful people by choosing others over ourselves, by treating others how they would want to be treated. We also don’t put limits on our faithfulness. Just because others might be selfish doesn’t gives us the freedom to stop being reliable. Lastly, we can be consistent in our faithfulness. Will you show yourself to be a person worthy of other peoples’ trust or will you betray them? We are not wishy-washy but we are to be beacons of trust.