God’s Faithfulness

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” —  2 Timothy 2:13

Do you struggle with faithfulness? Is it difficult for you to keep the commitments you make towards God or others?

Has anyone ever signed a contract with you and backed out?  Have you ever been betrayed by a friend, a loved one or a business associate?  Unfortunately, many of us have countless stories of how people have been unfaithful to us, and if we are honest, how we have been unfaithful to others.  We make promises we don’t keep, we take vows we back out of and we sign contracts that we violate.  Man is an unfaithful sinner and no matter how hard we try, we find ourselves struggling to be faithful. I’m amazed at the fact that even the most devout believer struggles to be faithful, although they are saved and sanctified.  The only one whose faithfulness is unchanging, constant, irreversible and unquestionable is God’s.

Faithfulness is an ongoing demonstration of commitment and allegiance to a person or cause.  It is a time-tested attribute.  Faithfulness is not something that we were; it is something that we are.  You cannot say that you used to be faithful because once you cease to be faithful, you no longer can claim faithfulness as a character trait.  If you have been married for 50 years and divorce out of unfaithfulness, that act of unfaithfulness eradicates all the 50 years of faithfulness you had put in.  One act of unfaithfulness corrupts years of faithfulness. Faithfulness is never past tense; it is always present tense.  You can see how difficult it is for man to be faithful.  Faithfulness requires endurance, perseverance and longsuffering.  It is an unconditional act towards a changing person to remain committed no matter the circumstances.  Though it is difficult for man to be faithful, there is one whose faithfulness is eternal, uncompromising and steadfast: our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  God’s faithfulness is eternal and irrevocable.

How can God be so faithful though we struggle to maintain our own faithfulness?  The secret to God’s faithfulness is that it is not dependent upon us fulfilling our end of the bargain.  God made a deal with Abraham and could not find anyone to swear by, so he swore by himself (Hebrew 6:13-19).   Imagine that: someone makes a deal with you, and in recognizing your limitations and frailty, he signs both sides of the contract to ensure that the contract will be realized no matter what you do.  God’s faithfulness is independent of man; it is totally dependent on the very nature of who God is.  That is why he says in II Timothy 2:13 that even when we are faithless, He remains faithful because He cannot deny himself or His very nature.  God made a deal with himself concerning man that He will accomplish certain things through man, regardless of man.

Many kingdom entrepreneurs struggle with condemnation and guilt because we are unable to carry out our end of the bargain regarding the covenant we made with God.  We allow the devil to trick us into believing that we are not enjoying certain privileges or we are going through certain difficulties because somehow God is not pleased with us or God is dissatisfied with our performance.  Here’s the good news: relax and thank God for Jesus, who paid a dear price for your freedom to make you right with God.  God’s love towards you is not conditional to what you do for Him or to Him, but it is solely dependent upon what His Son did on the Cross of Calvary.  To make sure that we had no excuse, He sent His Son to demonstrate faithfulness so we would not have to struggle with it, but rather to walk in it by taking on His Son. Wow, what love.

Don’t try and keep commitments based only on your strength, which leads to self-condemnation. Recognize that you are limited and turn to Jesus Christ and take on His nature so He may show Himself faithful through you.  Faithfulness cannot be accomplished outside of a devoted relationship with Christ. God’s faithfulness towards us is able to bring us into His image and likeness, which enables us to walk in His faithfulness.   

My prayer for you today is that God will give you the faithfulness to accomplish your commitments and that you will always stay committed to Him.