The Pathway to Faithfulness
God is faithful..but what does it mean for us to live in faithfulness to God and to each other?
I have a little rat terrier who is just over a year old named Kallie. She is a goofball and has the attention span of a gnat.
I’ve been trying to teach her to stay while I go through the gate.
I start with sit, then put my hand in front of her and say, “Staaaaaayyyy, Kallie. Staaaaaaay.”
If I’m lucky, I can get through the gate before she bolts through. But she is learning.
God trains us in faithfulness through our relationships, through parenting, through our professions. It's a training in righteousness.
He’s trying to train us to staaaayyyyy…
How many days of your life have you been too tired to cook a meal, change a diaper, carry through on discipline with a teen, get up and go to work…but you did it anyway. That’s faithfulness.
I grew up with Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Fury, Bonanza and The Big Valley.
I wanted a horse and a big dog. My mom said I couldn’t have a big dog unless I lived on a ranch… Thanks for the idea, Mom!
When I was 40 God gave me a horse of my own, and that led to 25 acres, gigantic dogs, and 100’s of alpacas over the last 20 years.
I didn’t realize it then, but God had been training me for this life for a long time. I worked at summer camps, raised 4 children, and taught 4th grade-- not jobs you can just take a break from easily.
Being a farmer or a rancher is one of faithfulness. You get up and do the work, regardless how you feel.
Paul Harvey wrote the job description pretty well:
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker"
-- so God made a Farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board"
-- so God made a Farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild; somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry...
-- so God made a Farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt, and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who, planting time and harvest season, will finish a forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, and then pain’n from tractor back, put in another seventy-two hours"
-- so God made a Farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds, and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place
-- so God made a Farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark."
It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church; somebody who would bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says that he wants to spend his life "doing what dad does"
-- so God made a Farmer.
God knew that fallen mankind would have trouble being faithful, but He was faithful enough for all of us.
He made an everlasting covenant with Abraham. He gave him the sign of circumcision, then promised to make Abraham the father of a great people but that Abraham and his descendants must obey God.
In return God would guide them and protect them and give them the land of Israel.
God’s pretty smart, though. He knew better than to leave it up to Abraham to keep that Covenant. So He put Abraham to sleep and did the whole thing Himself.
That’s the only reason it could be ‘everlasting’.
Then Jesus came and took our sins upon Himself— Scripture tells us He actually became sin.
He traded our pathetic rags with the grime of Sin ground into them, for His magnificent robes of velvet—His Righteousness.
(Imagine for a minute how you look to God, standing there in all of Jesus’ majesty.
He doesn’t see Fallen Sinner anymore—just the pure Light of the King of Glory. Hallelujah! What a Savior!)
Just as God did for Abraham, Jesus did for us.
He knew we couldn’t keep ourselves out of trouble, so He took it upon Himself to cover us, and to re-create us from the inside out.
In the intimate setting of Passover in the Upper Room, once His public ministry was over but before they left for the Garden,
Jesus promised the disciples that He was sending a Helper—His Spirit— to be with them through thick and thin, who would teach them all they needed to know and walk them through life in a way He could never have done as a 3-dimensional human.
He was actually reiterating the words of the prophet Ezekial who had announced the New Covenant centuries earlier:
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a tender heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Ezekial 36:26-27
Paul echoed Jesus in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
God is faithful.
He models faithfulness for us, and then actually builds faithfulness into us by His Spirit, little by little.
He accomplishes His purpose for us by making us into His very likeness.
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; Romans 8:28-29
Educators are always talking about what is “developmentally appropriate” for children. I was ordering a toy for my granddaughter’s 3rd birthday, and was pleased to find that the toys and books were categorized by age groups.
It makes it a bit easier to know what is normal for a 2 year old—like when he bites his friends. It’s definitely not ok, but it is normal.
The Christian Life has developmental stages too.
Faith grows as we let God lead us along the path He has chosen for us. Even when it seems like there is nothing happening, or that God is distant, or that we are surrounded by a great dark cloud that obscures our path, God is right with us, closer than we can imagine.
We want to walk by sight, of course. That’s the natural thing.
But God asks us to walk by faith— the same faith that made us a new creature in Christ, that raised Lazerus from the dead, that let the Israelites walk through the sea on dry land.
It all goes back to trusting God. Everything does.
Well… here’s some good news— you are not alone in the ups and downs of following Christ!
Every saint that ever walked the face of the earth has struggled with it, but God, in His faithfulness, keeps calling us to follow Him.
After Jesus taught His hardest lessons and everyone but the 12 had left, Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)
There truly is no place else to go.
Christ is all and in all— and He still loves us.
Much of the time, the Christian walk is like my lessons with Kallie—
God is asking us to “Staaaaayyyyyy….”
Stay the course.
Steady as she goes.
Just keep being faithful.
Read. Pray. Do good. Meet together.
God asks us to stay with Him, abide with Him—the Vine.
He made us to partner with Him in shepherding and caring for His church, in the context of a relationship that is far beyond human closeness.
He designed us to be individual expressions of His divine nature by being in Unity with Him.
God wants us to be so much like Him that eventually it will be hard to tell where the Vine leaves off and the branch begins because the Light will be so bright.
In Matthew 5:16, Jesus tells us: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
But Faithfulness is more than simple obedience to God’s commandments.
It’s a state of the heart—
a state of being IN CHRIST—
a state of being one with His Spirit who dwells inside us.
~
We were designed to learn to walk closely with God in the company of others. We need other believers who can encourage us, help us find our path when the night is dark.
We all need someone who can help us zero in on what the Spirit is saying, and let’s face it— Sunday morning is just not enough time to do that.
We need friends who are a little farther along in the faith, people we trust to hear from God with us.
A small group of 3 or 4 others who are actively seeking God can help us stay on the path, and hold us up when we stumble on the way.
God loves it when we do that. He really does.
If you don’t have someone like that, don’t be afraid to ask for suggestions—you can write me a note, or send Kim an email at the church office: trinitychurchcamarillo@gmail.com.
A lot of our life in Christ is about walking along, holding hands with others in the dark so we don’t lose our way.
We pray for moments when God will illumine the path brightly,
when we can hear the Holy Spirit plainly.
We long for the day when we are truly one with God.
It might seem sometimes that God has disappeared, but I can assure you that He is always closer than you can imagine.
He promised never to leave us or forsake us. He has made His home right inside us.
He is as close as our breath, drawing us into the rhythm of His beating heart.
We are earthen vessels filled with Glory, and if you are very still inside and out, you will hear Him.
Thomas Merton, a Catholic monk, says that when we find ourselves in the dark, God is even closer than He was before—because we are walking in His shadow.
He is always faithful, and He is teaching us faithfulness with every step.
Cardinal John Henry Newman had this to say about faithfulness:
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do, but keep His commandments.
Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.
To abide in the Vine is to completely surrender ourselves to God.
I would wager that there are very few among us who know what total surrender to Him is like. I certainly don’t.
But I can imagine that is must be very freeing when God is everything, when our selfish desires give way to Love.
We even get to see progress-- fruit-- being made from time to time!
We can certainly give God our intent to surrender to Him. He will receive it lovingly, and bring circumstances to bear that will build surrender into our spiritual character.
He will continue to move us toward true Faithfulness like Jesus, who bowed before the Father the night before the crucifixion and said, “Not my will but Thine be done.”
Let’s pray.
Oh Lover of our souls, thank you for being faithful to us with every breath you give us.
Help us to know you more and more, to increasingly understand what it means to be faithful to you and to one another.
Help us to surrender our wills to yours as you ask us to, and to grow ever closer to you, ever more into the likeness of your Son.
In the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen
Psalm 119: 73-80
י YOD
73 Your hands have made me and fashioned me;
Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.
74 Those who fear You will be glad when they see me,
Because I have hoped in Your word.
75 I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right,
And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
76 Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort,
According to Your word to Your servant.
77 Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live;
For Your law is my delight.
78 Let the proud be ashamed,
For they treated me wrongfully with falsehood;
But I will meditate on Your precepts.
79 Let those who fear You turn to me,
Those who know Your testimonies.
80 Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes,
That I may not be ashamed.
~
I Finally Appreciate by Debby Kerner
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