He Is Faithful

I am thankful that God's faithfulness is not contingent upon my faithfulness! While you and I as believers are committed to faithfulness, God is Himself faithful.  There is a difference between a commitment to faithfulness and the essence of faithfulness.  With a commitment, though well intended and truly meant in the heart, there is a breaking point in most of us.  If enough pressure is placed upon us and the cost becomes so great, humanity will usually break.  Like Peter who loudly proclaimed that he would never deny Jesus, when the pressure became great enough he retreated from his commitment like a frightened child.   Yet, I am convinced he was as serious as he knew how to be.  It would be easy to say here, "Oh, that was before he received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit!"  True, but even in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is great temptation.  Where then is our confidence if not in our faith and faithfulness?  Faith in human faithfulness is a fragile foundation, sinking sand.  Our confidence is not in human commitment, faith or faithfulness but in the Faithful One.  It is difficult for us to comprehend the faithfulness of God because we think in terms of human abilities to "act" in a faithful way.  God is not acting, He Is Faithfulness.  It is a part of not only his nature but his Very Being.  For you and me, faithfulness is a commitment we will hopefully follow while for God it is as much a part of Him as the color of our eyes.  As we can't change our biological composition, nothing can change the faithfulness of God.  

That means that we must continue to walk out our commitment to the Lord in daily life while never believing that our faithfulness is all on our human shoulders.  I love the New Living Translation of
 I Corinthians 1:8-9.  "He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."  That is exciting news!  He will keep you and me strong to the end…"FOR HE IS FAITHFUL TO DO WHAT HE SAYS…"  There is the confidence in our faithfulness.  I know that I will be faithful until the very end, no matter the cost, no matter the pressure, not because of my great commitment but because of His great faithfulness to keep me strong.  It is his Word and He says that He will keep us to the very end!  That strength is made possible daily for us because we are in "partnership with Jesus Christ our Lord. "

May we take these verses and save them onto the hard drive of our spirit man and live out all the days of our lives with this confidence.