Monday, February 18, 2013

He Who Was Faithful, Will Remain So

“No one who believes in Jesus will be put to shame.”
— Romans 10:11 (NRSV)
How beautiful it is to consider the faithfulness of God.
We see it in others’ lives, as we see it in our own.  The longer we travel the journey of life, and the more we trust in a simple obedience, the more the capacities of our trust grow, and peace becomes us.  From there faith is easier, but our assurance is buoyed by a calm humility to keep things simple, not getting ahead of ourselves.
He who was faithful—and, I mean, the eternal “was,” i.e. was always—remains faithful.  He who is faithful, and has promised to bless our obedience, does not allow our faith to be put to shame.  For, honouring the truth has become our passion when our obedience has met the foreseeable standards of God’s will.
The beauty in honouring the truth—in trusting—is that there is nothing to fear having approached such a thing.  As we boldly though humbly honour the truth, living our faith with virtuous abandon, we delight in joy to observe the will of God.
Simply put, God’s faithfulness is to be seen everywhere.
It might even be seen by the results that the worldly may consider not a blessing at all.  Imagine seeing the faithfulness of the Lord in everything, disregarding personal benefit or detriment (for blessing may come ultimately from misfortune).  That is a halcyon of faith—to trust beyond evidence of blessing.
Observing History As a Means of Confidence for the Future
Wherever we need to draw hope we do no better than to consider God’s eternal faithfulness throughout our pasts, and throughout the pasts of others—especially those we call the heroes of faith.
What a gift it is to have the blessing of hindsight; the gorgeously outrageous legacy of the past where we have been touched by the hand of God.  These are amazing realities to consider; too amazing, really, for appropriate comprehension.
How is it that such a pure and holy God would prove so faithful?
Perhaps it is no irony at all that we notice God’s faithfulness all the more when we trust him.  God is faithful in many ways even when we don’t trust him, but we don’t notice it, because we are consumed in the self.
But the gorgeousness of trust is a delight to God, such as it is so that he blesses us with sight and reason for praise.
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There is nothing so gorgeous in life than the faithfulness of God, and, when we join divine faithfulness with faith to trust, we see not only blessing, we have reason to praise. God is faithful; the Lord fulfils his promises; we who trust will not be put to shame.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

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