When I left for college at the end of this summer God gave me the word faithfulness. Now that I have completed my first term and I have time to think, I am realizing quite what it means. A friend wrote me a letter about a month ago, right in the roughest part of studies. This is part of what they said:
"Funny how life changes so much. One season brings people, places, pastimes, and struggles, and the next - more people, and places, and pastimes, and struggles! Yay! Isn't existence fun? Never a dull moment. And if there is, your parents will give you chores as soon as you start complaining! 😂"
This made me think about faithfulness, and what it really is.
In my favorite class: Old Testament Survey, my instructor, Dr. John McMath, a 70-80 year old pastor and biblical historian, who has made hundreds of trips to Israel and the surrounding areas, hiking in nearly every place there where you can hike. With a dramatic lecture style of teaching, he has taught the Old Testament for over fifty years. I even found out that some of my other instructors, and my pastor even, were once his students. He defined faith and faithfulness like this:
Faith - "An attitude of trust built on a knowledge of God's word that results in obedience."
He explained how biblical faith always has these three parts: an understanding God's word - knowing what God wants you to do; an attitude of trust - relying on God to come through if you step out in faith; an active response - doing what God wants you to do while trusting Him to be with you and help you. These things work together to create acts or steps of faith.
Faithfulness - "The accumulative walk of faith, one step of faith at a time."
It is not waiting until you can't survive without trusting in God, where you try to work it all out by yourself until the only option left is a God answer, but instead it seeking out places where you can trust God, not hiding from them. It is not waiting for an opportunity of faith to come along, but actively showing and seeking to show your faith wherever you can. Feeding on that and delighting in doing it.
In Psalm 37:3-4 it says: "Trust in the Lord, and do good; settle in the land, and feed on faithfulness. Then you will delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you your hearts desire."
The act of faith is hard and long, but in the end it is rewarding. Faithfulness on the other hand is a lifelong hardship and a constant struggle upward, fighting to understand God's word, to grow in the attitude of trust and humility, and to bring that to action.
As I was reflecting, I saw that this time at college has been a great example of this. Growing up I was vaguely interested in engineering and had no specific direction in mind for my life. One day mom took me to a missions conference, where I heard a missionary pilot from JAARS - the transportation team for Wycliffe Bible Translators, talk about what the field was like, the need for workers to go, and the steps to get there. I wasn't sold from the get go, I just thought it sounded interesting at the time. But as life went on God nudged my memory, and after several tries I finally got the hint and started looking for avenues of training. One of the highest recommended training programs that I considered was Moody Aviation. After visiting the campus in Spokane, Washington a couple of times, I felt God calling me there. So I went. And here I am. I am sure now that this is were I am supposed to be, although I still don't know why yet, or what will happen after. But that is where this step of faith becomes faithfulness. Keeping that attitude of trust, while searching for more understanding in God's word, until God reveals the next step of faith.
What does this look like for you? It may be the college, university, or trade school that you are considering attending, what classes to take, the friends to make or keep in contact with. It may be to wait for something, or to step out and try something new. After this moment of living out your faith, there is another opportunity waiting around the corner, and God will be there too. There is this thing about faith though. It doesn't seem natural. It is really easy to avoid, but it is entirely vital in everything. There are things that don't seem like you would need faith to do them or decide for, those are the things you need to look for ways to show faith in. In the end we need a life of faith: faithfulness. So prepare yourself to be faithful; seek understanding in God's word, trust in the Lord, and bring that to action. Then be eager and prepared to do it again.
A closing thought: as humans we imitate others, and as Christians we imitate God. Studying the faithfulness of God, His son, and other christian examples, will give you joy and encourage you to be faithful too. So remember with joy this season that God showed us faithfulness by sending us Jesus.