The Zone Gathering

“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.” (Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923)

The words to this beloved hymn (one of my personal favorites) attest to God’s faithfulness throughout the ages and set up our study on the seventh quality of of the fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness. “For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…” (Gal. 5:22).

When I think of the word “faithfulness,” I think of loyalty, trustworthiness, obedience, confidence, and allegiance. The Greek word for faithfulness used in Galatians 5:22 is pistis, which means “firm persuasion, conviction, belief in the truth, veracity, reality or faithfulness” (Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament). It carries the idea of giving someone credit. In essence, faithfulness is believing in the reality of a sovereign God and giving God credit for being who He is, saying what He says, and doing what He does.

In her book Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit, Beth Moore makes this statement: “the degree of our faithfulness is the direct result of our regard for God’s faithfulness.” The faithfulness of God is His believeability; the faithfulness of the believer is his/her belief in God’s believeability. To whit, “faithfulness is resting in His certainty, being persuaded by His honesty, trusting in His reality, being won over by His veracity…being sure that He’s sure and believing He’s worth believing” (Moore).

God’s Faithfulness

When God passed by Moses on Mount Sinai, He proclaimed “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Ex. 34:6-7). For what it’s worth, the Hebrew word for “abounding” in Exodus 34:6 is rab, meaning “abundant…exceedingly, full, great.” It is a word referring to both quality and quantity! We see this same God described in Ephesians 3:20 as He who is able to do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (KJV). And it is no small coincidence that Moses, in his farewell address to the people of Israel, praised the Lord as “a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He” (Deut. 32:4).

The psalmist offers this truth about God: “For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all he does” (Psa. 33:4). He also affirms that “The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy. They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness” (Psa. 111:7-8). God is entirely faithful - His thoughts, His actions, His words, and His plans attest to His faithfulness and believeability.

God is believeable - He is who He says He is and does what He says He will do. “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19).

God’s greatest display of His faithfulness is the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 puts it beautifully: “But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not ‘Yes’ and ‘No,’ but in Him it has always been ‘Yes.’ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Our Call to Faithfulness

I love the book of Hebrews, and chapter 11 is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. This chapter reads like a “hall of fame” for heroes of faith, ordinary men and women who believed God. Hebrews 11:6 specifies what we are to believe about God: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”

It is simply not enough to base our faith on what God does — if we do so, we run the risk of disbelieving Him when things aren’t going the way we want or He isn’t giving us everything for which

we ask. Isaiah 55:8-9 affirms that humans’ understanding of God’s thoughts and ways is limited. Rather, true faith must be based on who God is. Beth Moore puts it this way: “Genuine faith walks steadfastly with God for the pleasure of His company and not for His results…God does not call upon us to seek His works. He calls upon us to seek His heart!”

Why is basing our faith on who God is more valuable than judging God’s believeability based on how He has measured up to the criteria we impose on Him? Because God (and Jesus Christ) never changes! The words to “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” lay claim to that truth, and the author of Hebrews expresses it this way: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever“ (Heb. 13:8).

When we understand that God is faithful and believeable, we are free to put our full confidence in Him. But what does it mean to develop the fruit of faithfulness in our lives? How can we be faithful?

I believe that true faith always takes action and transforms character. Faith should be evident. When we put our trust and confidence in the God who never changes, remains true to His promises, and always has our best interest at heart, we shouldn’t hesitate to pledge our allegiance to Him and obey His commands. Too often we allow our circumstances to shake our faith, but we cheat ourselves of the fruit of the Spirit when we base our faith on human feelings or perceptions. Faith comes from hearing God’s truth - “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

God designed our faith to protect us from attack by the enemy (Satan). If you read Ephesians 6:10-18, you will note that faith is represented by a shield. Shields were used by Roman warriors in such a manner that the other pieces of their armor were rarely hit. Without them, soliders were extremely vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. Likewise, “when we are convinced that God is believeable and we respond to Him in faith, practically nothing can get through to us. But when our faith diminishes, our shield begins to drop, and we are immediately vulnerable to the enemy” (Moore).

Faith protects us from attack and from fear. We can boast as Paul does, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). When we put our faith in a faithful, believeable God, we are banking on a sure thing. God never changes, He never fails. Sometimes, that means knowing God can do something, whether or not He does.

Challenge

Here’s the bottom line: God has always been faithful and will always be faithful. Whether or not we choose to believe Him and cultivate the fruit of faithfulness is up to us. If we choose to be unfaithful, we are only hurting ourselves; our faithlessness has no effect on God’s faithfulness:

“What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: ‘So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge’.” (Rom. 3:3-4)

“if we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown himself.” (2 Tim. 2:13)

Are you having trouble believing God? Pray the prayer a concerned father prayed in Mark 9:24: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Do you base your faith on what God does rather than who He is?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Bible Drills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.