Ellis
Faithful means “Trustworthy and loyal.” In the spiritual realm the word “faithfulness” is God.
We need to be reminded sometimes, though we should already know, that when things are good, God is faithful. When things are not good, God is still faithful. When we wake up in the morning, God is faithful. When we lay down at night, we rest real well because God is faithful; for however many years we all have lived God has been faithful; that’s what I want to establish on today. When we are at our best, community, God is faithful. When we are at our worst, God is faithful.
He’s even faithful to those who go their own way and look every way but up to Him. But, He’s faithful to wake them up, let the sunshine on them, let the rain fall on them just like He does His children, according to the scripture Matthew 5:45.
Now that’s what we call faithful.
God’s faithfulness is one of His richest character attributes and promises to His children. It is the one thing that we can rely on. We can stake our lives on His faithfulness. We go to bed at night and sleep all night long and some don’t say prayers before we go, but we are resting on God’s faithfulness that He will wake us up the next morning. We get in our cars and drive on dangerous highways on God’s faithfulness that He will cover us and take care of us while we drive. And that when the church is over, He will take us home safely. What God says in His word we stand on because we know that God is faithful, and the word testifies of His faithfulness.
Moses could write in Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A FAITHFUL God who does no wrong.” Joshua could say “Not one of all the Lord’s promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” The Psalmist through experience could say “For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is FAITHFUL in all he does.” No matter how many mistakes Israel made, no matter how many mistakes we make, God is faithful and he showed His faithfulness by sending Jesus to the cross to pay for all our unfaithfulness.
The Apostle Paul called the row when he said “God is faithful, who has called us into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9).” And for those of us who find ourselves in the middle of testing or trials, this same Paul said “No testing has overtaken you, but such as is common to mankind. And God is FAITHFUL; He will not let you be tested beyond what you can bear. But when you are tested, he will also provide for you a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13).”
God said it and that ought to settle it! Every last one of us reading today is a way out! Because with what some of us come through, if He had not provided a way out, we would have perished, drowned, went under, burned up or lost our mind.
Oh yes, He provided a way out during our testing!
Somebody may say “Well, I don’t see a way out with what I’m in right now.” Well, if he didn’t provide a way out you wouldn’t know you were here to know you were in anything. Because you wouldn’t know you were in your right mind.
Personally, I know I wouldn’t have made it out of some stuff, some testing, temptation; hemmed in on all sides, I would have perished!