Faithful
Posted by:
Bible Blogger on
May 21, 2007 at
9:17AM EST
Chris Tomlin released a song titled "Unchanging" with these lyrics:
"Great is Your faithfulness
Great is Your faithfulness
You never change
You never fail, O God
True are Your promises
True are Your promises
You never change
You never fail, O God"
Some
bold statements in the song and something that leads me to ask you a
question. How faithful do you really believe God is to you?
I
know millions of us sing songs similar to this every Sunday morning and
Wednesday night about the faithfulness of God and His mighty power and
the great things that He can do. I also think millions of us sing it
with really having the concept about what's being said in these songs!
Let's start with Webster's Dictionary's definition of faithful:
" Main Entry: 1faith·ful
2 : steadfast in affection or allegiance : LOYAL
3 : firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty : CONSCIENTIOUS
4 : given with strong assurance
5: true to the facts, to a standard, or to an original faithful copy
Isn't faithful an incredibly powerful word? Steadfast. Firm. Duty.
Assurance. It's a word that's filled with strength. It's a word that
can provide comfort and a challenge to us at the same time. If you are
on the receiving end of someone who's faithful it's a comfort to know
they're ready to do anything to help you. If you are the one giving
the faithfulness to another you are called to go above and beyond what
the world would consider as your duty to another person.
God is faithful to you my friend.
"If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:8-9 (ESV)
Let
me paraphrase it using a bit of the dictionary definition: "If we
confess our sins, God is firm in his promise to forgive us and cleanse
us." He's not going to waver, He's not going to change, He's not going
to walk away from you just because you've done something for which you
might think God would instantly drop God's Mighty Anvil on your head.
If you confess and truly repent of your sins then God will forgive
you. There's nothing to question about it.
" The steadfast
love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they
are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. " - Lamentations
3:22-23 (ESV)
Does it say the love of the Lord "might not"
cease? That His mercies "hopefully won't ever" come to an end? No!
It says that his love will NEVER end. Remember in elementary school
when your teacher would tell you to never use the word never unless you
really meant it? Do you believe it? A fourth grader would believe it
and we're supposed to be smarter than a fourth grader.
I won't
write here that we're all to the point that we never question this
principle of God regardless of what our brain may know about it. We
all have had times where we think..even if it's a split second...that
God's not going to forgive us for something. Mostly these times are
during the early parts of our Christian walk when it just seems to
foreign to think that God would forgive us for what we have done
throughout our lives or a sin from our old life that carries over into
the beginning of our new life in Christ. The Word is not unclear about
it. We need to keep words like the Lamentations passage in our hearts
for the times Satan wants to make us doubt in our Lord.
"Let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts
sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for he who promised is faithful." - Hebrews 10:22-23 (ESV)
I
want to try and encourage you today to hold tight to God's promises and
not to waver from them regardless of what the world throws at you or
regardless of what you do because of your fallen flesh. Don't let the
shame that the enemy is going to pour all over you effect your thought
process. Refuse to stand there and feel as if you're a horrible
Christian or that you're unforgivable or that no matter what God won't
let what you've done be forgiven. I'm not saying you don't have to
deal with the consequences here on Earth for your actions but God
Himself will cover you in Christ's blood and your sin in His eyes will
be gone forever if you truly turn your heart to Him and ask for the
forgiveness.
