Monday, April 21, 2014

Faithfulness

Galatians 2:20
   " I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."




In the past 9 months while being home, I have understood better the characteristics of God, especially His faithfulness.  What does faithfulness look like?  I can you what it does not look like: selfishness, complaining, laziness, impatience, and wining. Alas, all things I am guilty of portraying.  God's faithfulness is written on every page of the Bible as He cared for the Israelites throughout the Old Testament and kept His promise to bring the redeemer to save us all from our sins: Jesus Christ. 
   "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.…"  Romans 5:8-9  
   I don't know a better example of faithfulness than God promising to give us everlasting life even if it meant sending His own son to death on the cross.  That promise is never going to change.  His faithfulness doesn't change because He is faithful to care for our small day to day needs as well.  This is where it becomes more difficult for me.  I say "He is faithful" but I have to show that I mean it.  When I first came home, I was happy to see everyone and be in the conveniences of America.  However, as time went on, I didn't know how I would ever receive enough funds to return and thus began the wining and the complaints.  Forward to 8 months later at the end of March where I found myself at 85% knowing quite well that the only way I got there was through God's faithfulness.  I knew that when the rest came, I would have to give God all the glory because there was no way I could manage the rest on my own. 
      So, there I was, one day at 85%, and the next day reading an email that I was at 100%.  I was shocked and then embarrassed because God was faithful even when I was not.  He was working and I was complaining.  The road to this point would have been so much easier if I would have just enjoyed the ride. 
    In the book, "His utmost for His Highest"  Oswald Chambers says, "It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances."  Of course I believe that God is sovereign but if I am not allowing God to control every circumstance, than I am not truly believing in His sovereignty.  I want every being of my body to tell the world that I know that God is sovereign and that only happens by giving God control.  Ouch, control!  We love control but as I have been learning, having control isn't worth the sacrifice we make to lost trust in the Lord.  As Chambers goes on to say, "To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith--the Lord Jesus Christ....If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if he so chooses."


    Bottom line...God is faithful, it is His character and that will never change.  We have the opportunity to learn through our mountaintop experiences and valleys by fixing our eyes on God and following Him through the path of life.


   I am returning to Togo in a week and I am so thrilled to share love with God's people who need saving.  I am also thankful for the last 9 months in which I had the opportunity to learn how to be faithful to the Lord just as He is faithful, always faithful. 


   " The goal of faithfulness is not that we wil do work for od, but that He will be free to do His work through us.... He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part.  God wants to use us as he used His won Son." Oswald Chambers