Faithfulness

"And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of]joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation." (Romans 5:4, AMP)

"You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way...Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life." (James 1:4,12 TM)

Last night I met with some dear friends of mine I didn't see in almost a year (shame on me). We were catching up on were we are in our lives, as you do. One of my friends, Hanna, really inspired me by what she shared with us. She grew a lot as a person and as a follower of Jesus and it blessed my heart to hear her. She was sharing on how the only way to actually move on and grow is to accept God for who He is. That even when you are at the bottom of the pit, you must look around you and do your best with what you have, believing God knows what He's doing even if it doesn't make sense to you. She made me remember Job, in his worst hour when he was trying to understand why is his life falling apart:
"Job's wife said to him, "Why are you trying to stay innocent? Curse God and die!"
Job answered, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Should we take only good things from God and not trouble?" In spite of all this Job did not sin in what he said." (Job 2:9-10, NCV)

I remember 2010...Hmmm...What a year!How many lessons! I was reading through my journal from last year and came across phrases like "Normally I would dread times like these, because I don't like what I become under all this pressure. I would sit there and ask Adonai in every way I would know how, to get me out of that situation, to make it stop... This time I don't for some reason. All I know is that He knows what He's doing." Sometimes in school I had to learn lesson I didn't like and I couldn't possibly see how they will help me in my future. Perhaps they did, perhaps they didn't. What matters is that school per all developed me into the thinking reasoning creature that I am today. I suppose I always had the determination to make it through challenging times, what didn't help me was my thought process at the time. What you tell yourself in difficult situations makes the difference between crushing or standing tall. I learnt from King David the concept of encouraging yourself in the Lord. Our spoken words have power and I don't mean just the spiritual concept. Tell yourself long enough that you are an idiot and one day you'll realise that's probably the second thing you tell someone about yourself.

What does it mean to encourage yourself in the Lord? I think it means you make a decision when faced with difficult situations to either comment on your own persona and the situation itself or to tell yourself about the Lord: " Adonai, I know You are a good merciful God . I know nothing escapes You, I know nothing takes You by surprise. I know You will take care of this as well, just as You did with other things in the past."
This is what King David did all over the Psalms- he talked to his soul and he reminded himself whom his God was.
But in order to be able to do this you must believe what His Word says is true and that He means every word He says. That He always remains the same and He is not confused about what He wants from us as to change His mind every 500 years.

I always thought being faithful to God implies some sort of complicated theological concept which if I try hard enough I might understand some day, or perhaps striving to live a spotless life.
We are meant to seek to live a blameless life. You can't walk with God and carry on living the same way you always did. You can't take John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." and dismiss Jesus's words "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) It doesn't work like that.
I believe Jesus meant every word He said. But at the same time He called us to join Him, for His burden is light and His yoke is easy" (Matthew 11:30) He called us to Him because He knew His presence in our lives changes us. The perfection He's talking about is a "side effect" of living with God. I will forever stand for God's love and forgiveness and mercy. Anyone who knows the way I ended up walking with Him knows, I would be literally be dead without them. But at the same time I don't want to forget He also said: "Those who know my commands and obey them are the ones who love me" (John 14:21 NVC)

Hanna, was telling us how she came to understand some of God's feelings whilst observing her children "I love you, mummy, you are the best mummy in the world" and then when they would not get what they want "I hate you, mummy!"

I believe being faithful is just as simple as saying always no matter what "I love you, Abba. You are the best Daddy in the world." I don't believe it means not doing anything wrong anymore, not sinning anymore and not landing on your face. That will happen no matter how badly you try not to. But faithfulness will make you look to Him always from where ever you landed and believe He is who He says He is and He means all He said, even when you don't have any evidence around you.

Emanuela. xxx

This is one of my favourite songs of all times. One of the first ones I learnt. It's sang by Marty Goetz, a Messianic Jew. The majority of his songs are King David's Psalms on music. At the end of this song he recites The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4)