Faithful, an overview [20100712]

Matthew Henry said: When we look forward, with an eye of faith, we shall see no reason to envy the wicked. Their weeping and wailing will be everlasting. The life of religion is a believing trust in the Lord, and diligent care to serve him according to his will. It is not trusting God, but tempting him, if we do not make conscience of our duty to him.

Welcome to the blog. This lesson will focus on faithfulness. If you'd like to see other posts in this series just click here.

To get a grasp of this word: faithfulness, we need to see the definition. It's a lot. Please be patient.

faith·ful (fāth'fəl)
adj.
1. Adhering firmly and devotedly, as to a person, cause, or idea; loyal.
2. Engaging in sex only with one's spouse in a sexual relationship.
3. Having or full of faith.
4. Worthy of trust or belief; reliable.
5. Consistent with truth or actuality: a faithful reproduction of the portrait.

Today we'll focus on worthy of trust or belief; reliable. Everything ties into trusting and believing.

God's word says this:

Psalm 37
³ Trust in the LORD, and do good;
         Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

How trusting of the Lord are you? If you can trust the Lord I believe one feeds on His faithfulness. If God can trust us then why wouldn't we trust Him? Trusting is believing. If we believe in the Lord then we trust Him.

Did you get that: Trusting is believing. If we believe in the Lord then we trust Him.

What am I trusting the Lord with? I should trust Him in all ways. He loves and cares for me. Therefore, I can trust Him, right? Some of you are shaking your heads at me right now. That's ok. Faith is serious business. Many people don't have much faith. God's word says we only need faith the size of a mustard seed.

Matthew 17
²⁰ So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Mustard seeds are about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. I read somewhere that they are smaller than poppy seeds. They're almost like a speck of dust small. That's all it takes. So, my unbelief and untrusting nature is holding me back.

Faith to me is trusting. For example: When I sit in a chair I have faith enough to trust that the chair will hold me up and not go crashing to the ground taking me down with it.

Another way to look at this is being reliable. A confident certainty. Reliable suggests consistent dependability of judgment, character, performance. Consistent dependability of character. Hmph.... will you look at that! Am I consistently dependable? No... I'm not. And neither are a lot of people. We are flaky undependable beings.

Well then... I better get my act together. What about you? Will you join me in this challenge and work on becoming a consistent dependable person in being reliable and trusting God being a trustworthy person for God? Standing firm and upright for God?

Leave a comment on how this post touched you. I know someone out there is going to be touched by this.