Hebrews 11
I have attempted to write this for three months running, and it seems that every time that I have fallen flat; In the beginning, I simply had a lack of understanding, but after time, things just got more and more complicated.
This topic of faithfulness is so complex for me to explain, because my own understanding of faith[fulness] often breaks down. So to save you some trouble, I'm going to partially step away from my normal format, and set before you some insightful questions, and I pray that the Holy spirit will empower me to set these before you (and answer them) correctly:
1. What is faithfulness?
2. How do we be faithful?
3. Why should I be faithful, and is it worth it?
Let's get right in to it! 😌
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1. What is faithfulness? ❓🤔
To begin with, faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit (Both part of God's identity, and what God wishes to produce in our lives through the Holy Spirit.)
To return to our anchor verse for this series, The Bible says in Galatians 5:22: "But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.(AMP)"
To try and set out to investigate what faithfulness is, we first have to begin with what faith is. For me, the most logical place to start is in Hebrews 11:1:
'Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. (AMP)'
Now, that is a long verse, so I will try to be concise. From this verse, I am therefore able to conclude what faith is:
Faith: A Confident, active Hope & Trust in regards to God's promises and Character.
Therefore, faithfulness is as follows:
Faithfulness: A full and Complete Confident, active Hope & Trust in regards to God's promises and Character.
Okay, let's try and be methodical:
Let us focus in on the word Hope first. Psalm 39:7 says:“And now, Lord, for what do I expectantly wait? My hope [my confident expectation] is in You. (AMP)'
For David, in this Psalm God is his only hope.
In terms of trust (faith), Psalm 18:2 says: 'The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.(NKJV) '
David uses words to describe God as reliable, a refuge, and a protector. For David, God's Character gives him the confidence for him to live his life without fear, knowing that God is in control of his destiny.
As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:7: 'For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.(NKJV)'
Both Hope and Trust together offer a framework to how faith works - Because of God's Character, we are able to trust God with our present and future.
I shall re-iterate on what I think I have said at every point in this series: The fruit of the Spirit are not Just God's attributes, they are parts of his identity. So what I say next may sound weird, but when given thought does make sense: God is faithfulness. It's not just something God experiences, it's part of who he is.
God continues to stay faithful and refuses to give up on broken, messed up human beings; Not because of what we do, but because of who he is - Love, as God is Love.
John confirms this truth in 1 John 4:8: "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.(NKJV)"
This naturally introduces the last piece of the puzzle concerning what faith is. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:7 : 'Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.(NLT)'
God offers us the promise, in which find out why Love never loses faith in Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
True biblical faith is not only something that exists in the realm of the mind, but starts with Love at its foundation. This for me is something that I didn't really understand until I had a revelation.
Every time I used think about how I came to Christ, I thought that I myself found God. I was reminded however that he loved me first, not the other way around.
Jesus says in Matthew 18:12: "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? (NLT)"
Isaiah further reminds us in Isaiah 53:6: "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own...(NLT)" What has this got to do with faith? Simply everything.
In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul is showing us what God's love looks like. For God, there is no love without faith. But for us, because our own love without God is not perfect, it is often infected by selfish ambition and sin.
"All we like sheep have gone astray" - I have gone astray, and at some point we all have.
My faith is often detached from God's love, because my own love is faulty, but in order to have perfect Godly faith, God's Love must be its foundation.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13: 'Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (NLT)'
So what is Biblical Faithfulness? Well, it's an expression of God's love. God has faith because of his love, and therefore, the very lives we lead is made possible through God's unending love for every single one of us. Because God is the only one who truly and utterly cares for us, and as he is all-powerful, we are able to experience his faithfulness - A Complete Trust and Hope in God, that continues to be guided and grown in communication with the Holy Spirit.
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2. How do we be faithful? 💝
So now I've established a definition of faith, I can now go on to explain how we can experience faith and be faithful. Our example of faith comes from one verse, Hebrews 11:7, so strap in! :
'By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.(NKJV)'
If you don't know the story of Noah (then really what are you doing? 😂), but he was called by God as a righteous man of God, and was asked by God to build an ark, as God was going to use a flood to purge the earth of all the evil in it.
To illustrate the first point, I need you to follow my train of thought, so bear with me.
We have just discovered previously that Faithfulness starts with Love at its foundation - there is no true faith without love, and therefore God calls us to love above all else.
Therefore, to be faithful, we should:
i) Love God.
Without being too repetitive, Faith starts with Love, and I shall use Noah to demonstrate this point. In Genesis 6:22, we are told: 'So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.'
God gave Noah some instructions about how to build the ark, and we are told here in Genesis 6:22 that he fully obeyed. (I'll try to be as clear as possible, but this is important here, so pay attention [please😆].)
Jesus says in John 14:15: "If you love me, Obey my commandments (NKJV)"
Here's my point: - through Noah's obedience, we are shown that Noah really loved God, of which ignited his faith. How does this relate to faith?
Because Noah had to love God enough to Obey him; If he hated God, then even if he knew God was right he may have been to stubborn to listen.
Furthermore, if we really love God, and God gives me instruction that something is going to happen, we have to love him enough to trust him that his word is enough.
that is why Jesus says in Matthew 4:7: 'Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.(NIV)'
This is not because God isn't able to showcase his power, it means that if you require God to prove himself to you to believe him, then your faith is not complete.
Love ↠ Obedience ↠ Faith
This leads to the second way we can be faithful perfectly:
ii) Listen to/Obey God.
For God, Obedience and Love are two sides of the same coin; We obey that which we love, and Love what we Obey. (Think about it!)
Am I saying that if we disobey God, it's because we don't love him? Of course not! I (along with you all) have disobeyed God many a time. What I'm trying to show is the root cause behind our Disobedience - It's often because we love more (or have greater allegiance to) what took God's place(Stay with me 😚)
Look at what Hebrews 11:7 says: "By faith Noah...prepared an ark for the saving of his household"
The First Dimension to this is Listening. The Hebrew word for to listen is שָׁמַע, Or Shema. It means to listen, but it also means to Focus or Pay attention.
Think practically - anyone you love, you focus when they talk, and pay attention when they speak.
A lot of us don't even attempt to meet with God - we neither lend him our attention nor our focus.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says: '...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith... (NLT) '
Jesus as our champion has power over all things, including sin. We express that we love him when we choose to Focus and Pay attention to that which we love.
In this way by giving up time in our day to spend time in Prayer, the Bible and Worship, we give God access to speak into our hearts through his Holy Spirit and actually make a difference in our lives.
This introduces the second dimension to obedience - Action. James says in James 2:17: "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.(NKJV)"
What James is saying here, is that if your actions disagree with your faith, then your faith is useless, because you have not allowed that faith the access to influence your actions.
To really illustrate this, I'll just say this: Noah got asked by God to build a big boat, of which would take time, effort, resources and humiliation of those around him. If it was me, I would place my love for laziness and security over my love for God; Not because I don't love God, but because I love those things more.
A lot of times, we disobey God not because we don't love him, but our love is misguided, and is found in other things. In this way, my faith in God immediately fails, because even though we love him, I don't trust him enough (have enough faith) to sacrifice those things we hold dear.
Knowing this, Active Obedience is a fundamental part of faith.
Finally:
iii) Repeat
Many people can't have faith because they have neither patience nor consistency.
To bring the focus back towards Love, In 1 Corinthians 13:4, Paul says: " Love is patient and kind...(NLT)"
If Love is hyperlinked to faith, then Patience is a paramount aspect to faith.
Abraham was promised a son by God at age 75, and it takes 25 years for that promise to come to pass. We know that Noah spent at a large number of years building the ark ( some say between 55-75 years, but the bible is not clear.)
James says in James 1:3: '...the testing of your faith produces patience.(NKJV)'
Patience has seemed to have been an underlying theme throughout this whole series, and that is because ultimately Love has truly been the overarching theme, and there is no patience without Love.
The testing of our faith produces patience, because we all in our minds have a narrative of how we want a situation to go, and God often tests our faith and upsets our expectations to see whether we truly trust him, and therefore ultimately love him.
James goes on to say in James 1:4: "So let it [Patience] grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.(NLT)"
What James is addressing here is consistency. The only way for patience to grow is to have consistent faith. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:7: 'Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.(NLT)'
James makes clear that this makes us perfect and complete, knowing that whilst we are on this earth we will never of our own willpower be perfect.
God through his Holy Spirit empowers those who ask him for the wisdom to persevere through tough times. This is why James says in the next couple of verses (James 1:5-6):
'If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.(NKJV) '
Consistent Patience is the last piece in the puzzle in being faithful to God in Christ Jesus.
Whilst this is all very well and good, and I have unpacked what faithfulness is, I have not really shown any practical applications to this, so here are some ways you can practically experience full faith in God:
1. Prayer
Regular prayer concerning faithfulness is great at accomplishing many things - not only does it perpetuate an environment in which you are able to grow in Christ, but it is also creates a healthy habit, of which you begin to draw near to Christ by simply sacrificing your time, and being intentional about meeting with God.
Romans 12:12 says: 'Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.(NIV)'
Furthermore, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says:'pray without ceasing,(NKJV)'
Jesus prayed to God the Father, and he's the Son of God. If Jesus, who shares in God's own identity prayed, then what is our excuse?
In prayer, ask that the Holy spirit would speak to your mind and heart, that the Love of God would permeate your actions and move you towards Obedience. Ask God to restore your focus to him, and to reveal to us the things that we love that are not of God. Pray also that Patience will grow as our faith is tested, and that we will not abandon God as he ever remains faithful to us.
2. The word (Bible).
The Bible is one of the main ways we grow our faith. By simply reading stories of those who had radical faith, it ignites a hope that that same faith can exist and produce results in my own life.
As I hope I have demonstrated, God uses the Bible to teach us the way in which is in our own best interest to live our lives, amongst many other things, including to help us pray, (e.g Psalms), To tell a story (e.g Exodus), and to teach about faith. (e.g Hebrews)
If you want to try and delve deeper into faith, it can be found all over the bible, but very specifically in Books like James & Hebrews. Both of these books can feel very daunting to read, so i'll leave some helpful videos at the bottom, but my advice is that if you want do delve into faith, those books are a great place to start.
Try to be consistent at reading the word on a daily basis, and ask the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you to reveal to you both the meaning and the application of the Scriptures to your daily lives. No-ones asking you to read through a whole book a day; if it helps you, just start at a verse (For example James 1,) and just read 2-3 verses, and you will grow from there.
3. Worship.
I have said it before, and I'll say it again: Worship is Our Love expressed to God in response to his Grace towards us. Grace is the unmerited, unearned, undeserved kindness and favour of God. This means that worship isn't just a song - it's how I live my life.
The most common way I can worship God however is through a song, and often singing worship songs on a regular basis help me remind myself about who God is, and that consistent praise is what motivates me to stay faithful to Christ.
I can most successfully worship God through my actions, of which (if you love God, of Course [John 14:15]) should be in line with God's commandments. And if that's too general for you, to paraphrase Jesus said that Loving God and Loving your neighbour fulfils the Law (Check Matthew 22:34-40).
So when you know you're doing wrong, or aren't sure, just think to yourself, "is what i'm doing loving God and neighbour?", and begin to ask in prayer for God to reveal to you the ways in which you aren't in line with God's word in an area in your life.
This is the most practical way for your Worship to be infused with faithfulness.
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3. Why should I be faithful, and is it worth it? 💘
1. God is Wisdom
Proverbs 3:19 says: 'The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens;(NKJV)'
Here we are told that God created the whole universe in his wisdom. In the same way, God instructs us ( a result of his majestic creation,) to have faith. If God's wisdom is the means by which I inhabit the universe, then to heed to his word and have faith in him is probably a good idea.
Paul illuminates in 1 Corinthians 1:25: 'Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.(NKJV)'
Paul is not saying that God is foolish - he is saying that God doesn't often work in ways that are comfortable or make sense to us, and therefore the things God tries to perpetuate in our lives often seem foolish to us, but it requires faith to see that they are wiser than any other means that you could come up with on your own.
We often think that what God is trying to do isn't working, and we then quit being faithful because results haven't been instant.
God has infinite wisdom, and in that knowledge, our faith is able to become easier (although faithfulness is by no means easy!)
2. God is Truth
Jesus says in John 14:6:'...“I am the way, the truth, and the life....(NKJV)'
It also says in Numbers 23:19: “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?'(NKJV)'
God always stays true to his promises, because God is truth. God is actually the only person who is guaranteed to stay true to his promises. It took Abraham 25 years to se his promise come into fruition, but the promise still came to pass.
I live in faithfulness to God, simply because he is the only one who always stays faithful to his promises.
3. God is Love.
God loves us unconditionally, despite our flaws. Of course there are endless reasons why we should have faith, and to list them all it would take the rest of this lifetime. But the most amazing thing is that in the midst of my broken life, God willing-fully pours out his love on all who wish to receive it.
Hebrews 11:6 says: 'And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.(NLT)'
If God loves me unconditionally, and I love God, then it only makes sense for me to want to please him, not because I yearn for his approval, but because I love God.
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When I first started writing this, I was lost, because I thought there wasn't a concise way to address everything about faith (And there still isn't - I couldn't possibly cover everything). I thought I had firm faith, until I felt God asking me things like, "would you give up X for me if you had to?" Or "Would you do Y if the opportunity arose".
Shortly after that, I went through a period of life in which my faith was moderately tested. Often when our faith is tested, we are so hurt we don't even wish to go to God to ask for faith, because we are so sad or even angry that such a situation was allowed to arise.
And that's okay. The Psalms are littered with what seem to be emotional, anger driven tirades asking God to do something. And this is what I call all of us to learn today. It's okay to be sad. And God is okay, and even invites us to ask him to do something.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:7:'“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.(NKJV) '
Faith, Hope and Sadness can and do often co-exist. But God always get's the last word - You shouldn't allow those things to separate you from God.
Paul says in Romans 8:38-39: "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.(NLT)'
Part of growing as a Christian individual is discovering the ways in which periods of testing are able to teach you about yourself.
Pray, Worship and read the word, and never fight alone. Faith is always better together. I pray that the Holy spirit will lead you to have deeper faith and a mature heart.
I have left a few resources down below if you would like.
God bless. ❤️
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