Faithful

Faithfulness is an attribute I admire most.
I have two plants that make me smile because they picture for me this characteristic .

One is a little pansy plant that I planted last spring. It didn’t really do very well… but I let it struggle along… All the other plants in my planter did their winter thing.. either dying as annuals or going dormant until spring.
All except this little pansy, it held to life and bloom covered in snow , drenched under days-on-end rain, endured the freezing cold.
Then, when spring finally came it exploded with the life it had clung to through difficult times . When I look at it , I have to smile !
I see faithfulness mirrored in each tiny, pansy face.

The other plant is my rabbit’s foot plant. I have had it for 15 years.

I admired a older friend’s plant and she , pleased that I liked a plant her daughters hated , gave me two little cuttings she had started in pots. She has since gone to be with the Lord, but I still have the plants she gave me and I love them reminding me of her !
They also remind me of faithfulness. This fern is amazing. I do NOT have a green thumb so if plants thrive under my care .. it is IN SPITE of me and not BECAUSE of me.
At times I have forgotten to water this fern to the point of it having no fronds on it at all.. It really looks completely dead ! But I , feeling guilt ridden , water it anyway and it always comes back.. bigger and more beautiful than before !! How faithful to its God-given life!

I was thinking about the word ‘faithful’ the other day .... and my thoughts formed an acrostic of the word expressing the whys of why 'faithful' is so important to me.

1. It has a quality of ‘Forever’. If faithful is temporary then it is no longer faithful. I love things that are solid and trustworthy and ‘without end’. Faithful is that to me… be it in marriage relationships, friendships, or family. And how wonderful that our God calls Himself the Faithful One.

Deu 7:9 "Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations"

2. I love the word ‘Abiding’ connected to faithful. Here we have the picture of something ever-present. Isn’t that what Jesus is to us ?

Joh 15:10 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

3. Faithful encompasses ‘Intimacy’. Faithful means committed to – as in knowing- being compassionately heart-connected !

Heb 5:2 "Who (Jesus) can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity."

4. For something/someone to be faithful, it has to be built on something solid, something that can be Trusted. How sweet to know that we can trust in the ‘character’, the Name of Jesus.

Mat 12:21 "And in his name shall the Gentiles trust."

5. Have you ever thought that for faithful to be true it must be Humble? Think of it…. would not the slightest hint of pride not tempt the faithful one to turn away from the one he was faithful to and toward himself?
Jesus came as the humble servant of man to show us the way we should live .. and He leaves us His promise.

Jas 4:10 "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

6. The beauty of faithful is such that it is ‘Faultless’. Have you ever seen a bird sitting on the road beside its fallen mate? Does your heart not wrench in sorrowful compassion for the faithful bird so reluctant to desert its mate even in death? Could you find fault with the bird ? I don’t know how you could…. Faithful encompasses a quality of faultless, because faithful is so directly focused on that to which it is faithful !
If we are faithful to Jesus and to His Word, shall we not also stand faultless before Him ?

Jud 1:24 "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy"

7. Faithful is tenacious.. it is ‘Undeterred’. No evil may tempt it, no pleasure deceive it, no changing circumstances alter it . It is forever true ! Our God will not change.. He is forever the same .. and His Words are forever faithful and true !!!!

Rev 22:6 "And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true"

8. What good would faithful be if it were not the expression of Love ? Faithful expresses the proof of love .. expresses the depth of love … expresses the security of love.

1Co 13:4 "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails" It is faithful !

Have you checked the level of your faithfulness lately?
Is it the forever kind? The kind built on love?
Can your loved ones – spouse, friends, family count on you to be faithful? Can God?