HE IS FAITHFUL AND HAS CALLED US TO FAITHFULNESS
BREAD
9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. 10 But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him. Deuteronomy 7:9-10 (NIV)
4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. Deuteronomy 32:4 (NIV)
25 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. 26 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 27 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. 28 You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.” 2 Samuel 22:25-28 (NIV)
20 This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. 21 In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered. 2 Chronicles 31:20-21 (NIV)
8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. 9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. Psalm 25:8-10 (NIV)
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. 14 The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. Psalm 145:13-14 (NIV)
8 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 (NIV)
2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2 (NIV)
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 (NIV)
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NIV)
BUTTER
“So deeply rooted in our hearts is unbelief, so prone are we to it that while all confess with the lips that God is faithful, no man ever believes it without an arduous struggle. … Certainly, whenever God thus recommends his word, he indirectly rebukes our unbelief, the purport of all that is said being to eradicate perverse doubt from our hearts. For unbelief is so deeply rooted in our hearts, and we are so inclined to it, that not without hard struggle is each one able to persuade himself of what all confess with the mouth: namely, that God is faithful. … Surely, as often as God commends his Word to us, he indirectly rebukes us for our unbelief, for he has no other intention than to uproot perverse doubts from our hearts.” John Calvin
“We should follow Christ in simplicity and faith, because the paths in which He leads us all end in glory and immortality. It is true they may not be smooth paths – they may be covered with sharp flinty trials, but they lead to the ‘city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.’ ‘All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of His covenant.’ Let’s put full trust in our Leader, since we know that, come prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, popularity or contempt, His purpose shall be worked out, and that purpose shall be pure, unmingled good to every heir of mercy…..His dear love will make us far more blessed than those who sit at home and warm their hands at the world’s fire.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“There are two methods which the Lord graciously adopts, in order to draw our heart away from this present world. The first is by setting before it the attractiveness and stability of “things above:” the second is, by faithfully declaring the evanescent [temporary] and shakable nature of ‘things of earth.’… Now it is much better to be drawn by the joys of heaven than driven by the sorrows of earth. The believer should not wait to be shaken out of the present things…There is no difficulty in giving up the world when we have, by faith, laid hold of Christ: the difficulty then would be to hold it.” CH Macintosh
“I do not pray for success. I pray for faithfulness.” Mother Teresa
“We’re pilgrims on the journey – Of the narrow road – And those who’ve gone before us line the way – Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary – Their lives a stirring testament to God’s sustaining grace – Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses – Let us run the race not only for the prize – But as those who’ve gone before us – Let us leave to those behind us – The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives – After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone – And our children sift through all we’ve left behind – May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover – Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find – Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful – May the fire of our devotion light their way – May the footprints that we leave – Lead them to believe – And the lives we live inspire them to obey – Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.” Steve Green
“‘On whom dost thou trust?’ We can answer boldly, ‘We trust in him whose power will never be exhausted, whose love will never cease, whose kindness will never change, whose faithfulness will never be sullied, whose wisdom will never be nonplussed, and whose perfect goodness never can know a diminution.’” Charles H. Spurgeon
“Life is a furnace and the faithful live by the Shadrach-prayer of only 4 words: ‘Even if He doesn’t.’ This world doesn’t have anything that can burn down the faith of a heart on fire for God.” Ann Voskamp
“Faithfulness stands at the heart of who God is and what He wants to do in and through us. It is rooted in commitment and trust. Trust is produced when we make a promise and then keep it, when we make a commitment and then honor it, and when we say something and mean it. Consistency, reliability, and proven track records are all aspects of faithfulness. Faithfulness means giving your best to any effort you undertake, whether it is a task or a relationship.” Michael Youssef
“God tries our faith so that we may try His faithfulness.” Anonymous
“Every time we resist the slightest temptation, we honor God. Every time we overcome even the smallest problem by trusting and obeying our Lord Jesus, God is glorified in our lives. Whenever we choose character over convenience, faithfulness over ease, or honesty over deceit, we bring honor to the Lord Himself.” Robert J. Morgan
“Faithfulness rarely feels heroic; it feels much more like showing up and hanging in. It is a matter of going to our cell, whatever form that might take, and letting it teach us what it will. Availing himself (Brother Lawrence) to consistent faithfulness yielded the blessing of both proficiency and presence—the presence of God—right there in midst of the monotony of dirty pots and pans.” Margaret Guenther
“We don’t normally like being on the bottom. It’s just not the position we generally pick. It goes against our flesh. Yet, in the Bible’s economy you stoop to rise, you lower and God elevates. Therefore, rock bottom appears the perfect place to simply look up and the perfect time to begin building upon the solid foundation of the Rock of Christ. Often stripped of our dearest Delilah’s we are not too dissimilar to the returning prodigal. We have nothing but our will to bring – do we really ever have anything else? And Jesus says tenderly, ‘Come’. On Him you can depend. On Him you can count. On Him you can trust. He turns away no one. He will never let the righteous fall or blow away for that matter. His grip is firm and secure. Much akin to a young mother grabbing her two-year-old in busy traffic and yet so infinitely more. He dearly loves His children and He always causes them to stand because He is faithful and able to cause us to stand – no matter what wind blows.” BHY
“Jesus, the Blessed One, is gentle. Even though he speaks with great fervor and biting criticism against all forms of hypocrisy and is not afraid to attack deception, vanity, manipulation and oppression, his heart is a gentle heart. He won’t break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick (see Matthew 12:20). He responds to people’s suffering, heals their wounds, and offers courage to the fainthearted. Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, and freedom to prisoners (see Luke 4:18-19) in all he says, and thus he reveals God’s immense compassion. As his followers, we are called to that same gentleness.” Henri Nouwen
“Though salvation is not by the works of the law, yet the blessings which are promised to obedience are not denied to the faithful servants of God. The curses our Lord took away when He was made a curse for us, but no clause of blessing has been abrogated. We are to note and listen to the revealed will of the Lord, giving our attention not to portions of it but to ‘all these words.’ There must be no picking and choosing but an impartial respect to all that God has commanded. This is the road of blessedness for the Father and for His children. The Lord’s blessing is upon His chosen to the third and fourth generation. If they walk uprightly before Him, He will make all men know that they are a seed which the Lord has blessed.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“God is always looking for boys and girls and men and women who are available to Him. Look at Judges 6:34: “Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon.” The literal meaning of this verse is this: The Spirit of the Lord was worn around him like a suit. It covered him all over. The Spirit of the Lord came all over him. God was not looking for the most courageous person. He was not looking for the most powerful warrior. He was not looking for the best strategist or the best thinker. He was looking for a man who, conscious of his own weakness, was nevertheless willing. He was looking for a man who would be dependent on God’s power, not his own. He was looking for a person who was willing to grow in his faith in God, who was willing to take God at His word, though he might ask for confirmation three times. God was looking for someone through whom He could demonstrate His unparalleled faithfulness.” Michael Youssef
“A life well lived is simply a life filled with continual ordinary obedience in doing the next right thing particularly when no one sees, when no one is watching. No fireworks go off, no horns blow, no grand applause from an adoring audience. It is living the one life we have been given for an audience of the One Who gave it to us, for His pleasure for our good. Being a follower of sweet Jesus will always boil down to a matter of our faithful ordinary obedience. And will always lead to a life well lived.” BHY
HEART SAVOR
• God desires for us to live out our lives in ordinary faithfulness which, BTW, is outstandingly exceptional.
• God is faithful to His Word and loving toward all He has made. We can trust Him with our lives.
• God’s works are perfect, He does no wrong even when we cannot understand His ways, they are always loving.
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