Faithfulness

Corinthians 4:2 says, “Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. One thing that God requires of us is to be faithful. There are many ways to be faithful. One way is to be faithful over our possessions. We know that if we are faithful with the small things that God blesses us with, He will bless us with bigger things. Another way to be faithful is toward each other. We don’t give up on one another no matter what the circumstances are (Galatians 6:2). More than anything else, I think God wants us to be faithful towards Him.

Being faithful to God goes beyond not worshiping any other gods and going to church. Dictionary.com has about six definitions for faithfulness. One definition is “steady in allegiance or affection; loyal; constant ”. When we are constant with God, we are not wayward. When I say wayward, I mean today we follow Him but tomorrow if things don’t go right, we follow our flesh. When we are faithful to God, we put our spiritual well being first. We make decision based on our spirit and not our flesh. We also work extra hard and press forward when things get tough.

Jesus said in John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” When you prune a tree, you cut some of the branches away so that the tree can grow better. This is what I believe Jesus was talking about when He talked about purging the branches. When we choose

not to act on our flesh, we are starving it and snipping a little bit away so that the spirit can bear more fruit. If we are not faithful in living according to our spirit, we allow the flesh to grow wildly. This chokes out the good fruit that the spirit bears. Being faithful is continually cutting away the flesh so that the spirit can grow more fruit. No matter how hard it gets, we must remain faithful so that the other fruits of the spirit can grow.

As you may know, Galatians 5:22 lists faithfulness as one of the fruits of the spirit. Among the other listed fruits is also love. I found it quite interesting when studying on faithfulness that one of the reference scriptures for faithfulness describes love as well(1 Corinthians 13:7). This told me that when we are walking in love, faithfulness will follow.

Looking at the greater picture, all of the fruits of the spirit seem tied together in some form or fashion. Long-suffering and faithfulness seem to go hand in hand as they are almost the same in definition. Gentleness, kindness and goodness are also similar. When we have self control, we also have peace and joy. We can’t have any of these without love. Because God is love. He is the vine and we cannot bear the fruit without the vine (John 15:4).

Faithfulness is sticking to it no matter how hard it gets. I know I have said this many times in many other posts, but we cannot be faithful without God. God gives us the energy boost when we are worn out. He picks us up and dusts us off when we fall down. He motivates us through His word when we feel discouraged. No matter what is ahead of us, God is the only One that will give us the strength to remain faithful in whatever we are trying to accomplish.