Faithfulness

The faithfulness of God is emphasises many times in the bible and in this popular hymn.

"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father...
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me."

There are more than sixty references in the bible to the faithfulness of God and it’s not surprising that some forty of these instances occur in the book of Psalms. Here are recorded the struggles of the people of God and their total dependence upon God at times for God's faithfulness. They show that they were dependent upon God’s faithfulness for everything.

Psa 89:1-2
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations.For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens."

What is faithfulness?
The biblical word denotes that which is firm and can be counted upon. Webster’s defines faithful as “firm in adherence to promises or an observance of duty." Some common synonyms are: dependable, reliable, trustworthy and loyal. The word also implies “absolute honesty and integrity."

From these pictures of God we get a picture of the calling of faithfulness means for us. A faithful person is not only honest and dependable, but also loyal. Jesus similarly promises faithfulness to his followers in the gospels. Every time you gather to worship with brothers & sisters as Christians, we remember that He said, "Where 2 or 3 come together in my name, there am I with them" [Matthew 18:20]. Every time we take holy
communion, we remember that He said, "I will be with you always, even to the end of the world." And when we are faced with death we remember His promise, "In my Father’s house are many rooms...I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go & prepare a place for you, I will come back & take you to be with me. For where I am, there you will be also" [Matthew 14:2-4].

Faithfulness is to follow through with a commitment regardless of difficulty. Faithfulness has been defined as love hanging on. It is love saying, "I will not quit. There may be misunderstandings, there may be disappointments, there may be discouragements, but I will not quit. Ever."

In the new testament our faithfulness is frequently challenged.

We are challenged to be faithful in stewardship in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2.
We are challenged to be faithful in service inEphesians 6:21.
We are challenged to be faithful in our marriages in 1 Timothy 5:9. We are challenged to be faithful in witnessing in Revelation 2:15.
We are challenged to be faithful in prayer in Romans 12:12.
We are challenged to be faithful in ministry in Colossians 1:7.
We are challenged to be faithful in following the Lord in Revelation 17:14.
We are challenged to be faithful in the truth in 3John 3.
We are challenged to be faithful even in times of persecution in Revelation 13:10.
We are challenged to be faithful unto death & then we’ll receive the crown of life in Revelation 2:10.

There will be many examples that all of us can draw from every day life where we are called upon to be faithful - honest , dependable, loyal and filled with integrity. We could list some here: marriage, business relationships, friendship, family life, in making promises and in virtually every part of life that you can think of.

Simon Peter often made mistakes. He was impetuous. He even denied Jesus and then wept bitterly out of shame for what he had done. But when he fell down he was able to get up, dust himself off and start all over again. And because of this faithfulness he was chosen by Jesus for a special role and became one of the leaders of the disciples after Jesus' death. God was at work through Peter and God will work through us if
we can show the same faithfulness through adversity and failure. 

Faithfulness to God includes faithfulness to one another. When we look at the two great commandments we see that we are to love God first, but then love our neighbor as our self. The two commandments go together and should always be seen together. God requires that we be faithful to Him and also to each other in our daily lives. God shows faithfulness as Psalm 100:5 says, "The Lord is good & His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."  and God also expects and blesses our faithfulness.