He Is Faithful

God always accomplishes His word. That is how we know He is faithful. One of the main differences between us – image bearers and God is his ability to remain true to His words irrespective of what happens as it says in 2 Timothy “if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself” (2 timothy 2:13). This is how faithful God is – to the core! I must say, I am amazed and I marvel at His faithfulness. I am even more amazed that He made us in such a way that we would emulate such a character in our daily lives. Brothers and sisters, when you are faithful, you show God to a broken world. How we need faithful people today! We need faithful leaders, we need faithful teachers, we need faithful churches, we need faithful friends, we need faithful spouses, in fact, in every relation that requires a covenant; faithfulness is needed. As you continue to read, my hope is that you will see the faithfulness of God practically in the lives of some biblical figures and be able to identify that same faithfulness in your life.

If I had to sum the faithfulness of God, I would sum it up with “Himself” or “God”. I know, not very smart but trying to sum the faithfulness of God is like trying to describe who God is and it is practically impossible, no wonder all He could tell us was “I am” (Exodus 3:14). God is the author of faithfulness, He is faithfulness himself. I once knew someone who would jokingly respond when asked what humility was by saying “if you want to know what humility means just look at me!”. Now this was a joke and it was certainly not true of that person. However, this is exactly true of God. If we were to write down what faithfulness is we would simply say Christ. It is no wonder that all the promises of God are “yes” and “amen” in Christ, because Christ is the manifestation of them all. More importantly “he is the image of the invisible God…For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:15-20). As God repeatedly says in the bible, His faithfulness has nothing to do with the recipients of his faithfulness, it is all for His Name’s sake. God cannot deny himself, he is too righteous for that. His own self would not allow him to deny him. God regards himself with such a high view and we cannot afford to view him with a lesser view. There is a big gap between God and us. He is in a different ball game, He has no equal, His intelligence has nothing to do with our own, there is no one like Him, we cannot fathom Him and we cannot begin to think or imagine His ways. The story of salvation gets me every time, how God thought of bringing His son into the world and have him die so that others might live, would could have come up with that? Even the devil did not see that coming. In fact, all salvation stories in the bible are always beyond imagination, I mean who would kill a giant with a sling and a stone? Who would make a nation cross a land by dividing the water in two? Every time I think on these things I am humbled because I am reminded that my ways are not His ways and though I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), I do not comprehend it fully nor do I obey it.

The faithfulness of God manifests itself in the accomplishment of God’s promises. The bible is very clear on the fact that not one of the good promises of God that He had said through his servant Moses failed to be accomplished (Joshua 21:45). Moreover, whenever there is something God has declared or promised, it always comes to pass. Take for example Barak, he was told by the prophetess Deborah that honour would not be his as he was going in battle against the Canaanites but instead that victory would come through the hands of a woman (Judges 4:9). That word came to pass exactly as Deborah had told Barak because Israel’s victory came at the hands of Jael, a woman who killed Sisera, the commander of the army of the king of Canaan. Similarly, the Lord told Gideon that he was going to give him victory over his enemies and that is exactly what came to pass. Gideon defeated the Midanites and their large army with an army of 300 men (Judges 7). What about God’s faithfulness to Abraham? Abraham was told he would have descendants that could not be numbered, as numerous as the stars in the sky. He died before seeing this come to pass, yet he believed and today we can all attest to the faithfulness of God to Abraham. God’s faithfulness does not depend on circumstances, His faithfulness is not dictated by emotions, no, His faithfulness is firm and strong; it is unshaken. I love that about God. When He has spoken a word, it just comes to pass. It has no other way than to come to pass. It is almost as if the word that is spoken knows to execute itself. It is beautiful when you think about it.

So, look at your life and see how not one of the good promises of God has failed to come to pass. See how as David says in the Psalms, “I have been young and old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread” (Palm 37:25). See how, even as it further says in Psalm 23 that “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. If the Lord is indeed your shepherd, you cannot want, because you will be provided for, you will lack no good thing. I particularly love it when God has to remind us of who He is by saying words such as “Do you not know, have you not heard?” or “Am I not the one sending you?” these phrases are personal boosters to me as they remind me that it is God and not man speaking and backing me up in whatever it is I am doing. Therefore, be still and know that God is God, His Faithfulness is indeed from of old, it is perfect! God is good!