Always Faithful

“When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart…” Acts 11: 23

Our God is always and ever faithful to us. Can the same be said of us toward Him?

If I were to ask: how far would you be willing to go to follow God? What would your answer be? Are you willing to do whatever He asks? I think most people would desire to say “yes”, but many would not be so sure. I think many of us would be afraid to give a complete ascent of the will to the Lord. Why? Because we are thinking into it too much and this causes us to be afraid.

What do I mean? Well, I think when we are confronted with this question we tend to imagine God asking us to be a martyr for the faith. Or we picture Him asking us to leave everything and go to Africa as a missionary where we will be forced to eat bugs a couple times each day. Or we are convinced it means the Lord will force us to be a priest or a nun against our will. And when we begin to dwell on these big ideas, we can become afraid because we aren’t sure we want them or that we can handle them. We perhaps are afraid to fail or let God down.

Now, God may certainly ask you at some point to die for love of Him. And He just might ask you to be a missionary and eat bugs. And He might even ask you to be a priest or a nun (but never against your will). But I think if we get caught up in these big ideas, we might just miss the real point of faithfulness. Because while those things are in the future, what about TODAY? Can you be always faithful today: in your school, in your home, on your bus, with your friends?

What if instead of asking you to die for the faith, He is asking you to die to your desires for popularity? What if instead of asking you to be a missionary in Africa, He is asking you to be a missionary in your school or home today? What if He asks you to stop talking and acting like everyone else around you and instead He asks you to talk and live in righteousness and truth? What if you have to lose friends to be faithful to Him? What if you have to stay home alone on a Saturday night? What if people make fun of you because you stop trying to fit into the sin around you?

I think God is calling us to be always faithful each day. And the most important of these days is TODAY. Will you be faithful to Him, no matter what He asks of you today?

Dear Jesus, I want to be always faithful to You, because I know You have always been faithful to me. Through Your grace, may I strive to do whatever You ask of me THIS day—and every day. Amen.