Faithfulness
The word translated here as
“faithfulness”, pistis, is the same
word translated in many other places as “faith”. We often think of faith as
purely about religious belief. We have faith in Jesus, we say, meaning that we
identify as Christians. For Jesus’ first followers, though, faith wasn’t simply
something that you thought in your head or felt in your heart. It was active –
the act of being faithful, doing those things they said they would do.
Faithfulness involves trust – or the willingness to take a risk - putting
yourself, your life, your future into the hands of the person you are faithful
to. Spouses promise to be faithful to each other when they marry, “forsaking
all other”. Being true to this promise allows them to be themselves, knowing
they can rely on their partner. Our faithfulness to others may be costly,
though. Jesus’ disciples promised to be faithful to him on the night before he
died, but when the moment came, it felt too hard and they all ran away. (Luke
22.31-34)
Faithfulness is one of the core
attributes of God. In the Bible he is described as faithful many times, for
example in Psalm 57.10: For your
steadfast love is as high as the heavens your faithfulness extends to the
clouds. We can utterly rely on God to be there for us. He will not let us
down. Even when we do wrong, his faithfulness to us means he will forgive us
when we turn back to him. (1 John 1.9)
·
What experiences have you had in your life of
faithfulness and unfaithfulness?
·
How much do you trust in the faithfulness of
God, or are you frightened that he might reject or abandon you?
·
Pray:
that you will be faithful in the small things as well as the big things today
(Luke 16.10)
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