But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Faithfulness is definitely an aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit that
this world needs to see in us as Christ-followers. This world has truly
lost sight of what faithfulness means. We see unfaithfulness displayed
so much in society and the media today. When I think of faithfulness, I
am reminded always of how faithful God has been and continues to be to
us. We all know that we need to be faithful in all that we do in life,
no matter how difficult the circumstances that are before us.
I believe that being faithful is sincerely a hard task to
accomplish. It takes a lot of heart and a commitment to perseverance.
Faithfulness is something that is daily challenging. Images flash in
our midst constantly trying to persuade us to be unfaithful to
our spouses. As Christians, we need to pledge to God to do what is
right and be an example that is worth following.
As I consider faithfulness, I am reminded of the song "Holiness".
The chorus goes something like this:
Take my heart and form it
Take my mind, transform it
Take my will, conform it
To Yours, To Yours, Oh Lord
These are beautiful words. If we want to be faithful in our lives to
God's Word, we need to ask Him to have permanent ownership over our
hearts and to completely renovate who we are. He needs to have full
control in order to form, transform and conform us to being more like
Him. This will NOT happen as long as we try to be in control. It's
just as simple as that. The more we try to do things our own way, the
more temptation we compromise to in being faithful. When we are
unfaithful to others, we are most importantly being unfaithful to God.
We do hurt our relationships with others, but we also hurt our covenant
relationship with God. We distance ourselves from Him and that breaks
His heart.
If faithfulness is something you are finding yourself struggling with
right now, take some time to go to God and just drop everything before
Him. Unload all the trash you might be holding inside and just let God
come in and wash you out completely! That is my encouragement to you.
It would also be a good idea to get together with someone else who will
hold you accountable to be faithful, pray with you and encourage you.
Faithfulness is what God desires for us. He has been more faithful
than we can possibly imagine.