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FAITHFULNESS

The piano’s hushed melodies echoed in my heart as I listened to the solemn words in that hushed moment, surrounded by flowers, lit candles, friends, and family.  “Do you take this man to be your wedded husband?  Do you promise to love, comfort, and honor him for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health:  And be faithful only to him so long as you both shall live?”
I barely heard the words for I drank in the love in his eyes.  Now, almost sixty-five years later, we experienced so many ways of being faithful to each other. Faithful in a constantly changing world.  Marriage, designed by God, is the schoolhouse for learning to be faithful and living faithfully not only with my mate but also in a deep relationship with my Lord God. This is not ‘online’ learning – but in the trenches, heart learning to be faithful to God himself.
Each day brings new lessons on how to have a relationship with my Lord God – not just until I die, but for an eternity.  Tim Keller relates faithfulness this way:  Faithfulness is love lived each day, it is the honor and integrity of learning to have a meaningful and lasting relationship.
God made it to be so.  As Adam longed for a mate, God created Eve. And so marriage relationships began. When we disdain and turn away from God and declare He is not a part of our lives, we cannot be trusted to be faithful in any of the roles of our lives.  The result is no ultimate truth, no love or loyalty.  Our job, our spouse, our children, and our friends become less important in the “I”-centered life.  We are ego-driven.
With every bit of creation that catches our eye, from the tiniest insect to the immense universe we see the hand of God.  We see Him from the rising sun, to the sun setting in glorious color.  The army of stars in the sky reminds us of our Father in Heaven and his faithfulness.  Each flower, created by the Designer, and is a smile from our Lord.  Rain pours like a blessed gift from Him. 
Each baby is born in the image of God with a yearning in its heart for eternity. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11
We are born belonging to Him and our response to Him is the way we choose to live our lives in faithfulness.  Enoch understood that God rewards those who seek after Him and trust Him totally.  We trust God even when He is silent.  That is a part of faithfulness.  Without faithfulness, there can be no life with God.  When we take the name of God in vain, we show our disdain to the One who loves us and chose us long ago.  When we are faithful in little things, God helps us to be faithful in the big things of life.
As human beings, we question, ‘What are the benefits of being faithful and trusting God?’
  • Psalm 37:28 – “For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.”
  • Proverbs 3:12 – “My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring your prosperity.”
  • Proverbs 16:6-7 – “Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil. When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.”
  • Proverbs 28:20a – “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”
  • Revelation 2:10 – (NKJV) “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
·       John 3:16-19 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” 
Currently, we live a life filled with turmoil. We are unsure of what will happen next across the globe. There are wars, famines, economic collapse, and many natural disasters threatening to engulf us. Being faithful to God gives us great peace and assurance that we will be brought through all of this by His promises of blessings and the reward of eternal life in Heaven.  Faithfulness is being loyal to God our Father and his teachings and shapes how we think and act in our brief time on earth.
·      Psalm 36:5 – Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.
·       Philippians 1:6 – And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Psalm 33:4 – For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does.

Comments? Emily@emilys-Snippets.com