"Faithfulness"

  When we look closely at the death of Stephen (Acts7), it's rather amazing how he faced adversity from the crowd. As the crowd began stoning him we have these words: "They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them!' Having said this, he fell asleep." (Acts 7:59-60) How could Stephen react in such  calm way in the face of hatred and death? What kept anxiety and distress from showing up? He had the trusting knowledge that all was well with his soul.

  The Lord God rebuked a sinful nation of His people simply because they paid no attention to the words of the Lord and as a result they forfeited the peace of God that flows like a river (Isa. 48:18)

  The peace of God and security of salvation is not mystical. It comes from one thing: living within the will of the Lord. To know the peace of God you must trust the will of God. We must trust God's promises and walk with Him. Peace is the fruit in your life as you walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).

  This all leads us to the idea of being faithful. Faithfulness, like many other Biblical teachings and words, has lost its meaning. We deem faithfulness as someone who attends all the services. When someone attends some of the assemblies we say they are kind of faithful. If someone stops assembling we call them unfaithful. No wonder we find very little comfort and peace from God. We can't understand what faithfulness is. We quote the end of Rev. 2:10: "...be faithful until death and I will give you a crown of life." But what about the rest of the verse? "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."  Did you get that? Suffering, trials, prison and tribulations. These are life threatening! What does John mean? You must hold on to God and trust in His promises. What does it mean to hold on to God? STAND FIRM IN THE LORD'S SALVATION! Faithfulness is about trusting God's salvation even if it costs you your life!! Jesus is the guarantee.

  Now don't misunderstand me when I spoke of assembling with the saints. That's where we praise our Lord and exhort one another. They are important but to imply that sitting in an assembly means someone is faithful shows how little we understand about faithfulness.

  Over and over we are told: God is faithful! (I Cor. 1:9/10:13) God gives us His promises and I receive them, embrace them and my hope is built on them. That means no matter what comes in this life, my life is secure because He promises!! Faithfulness on my part is not about me doing every thing properly. It's about my trusting Him and leaning on His grace. I don't understand every thing and I sure don't do every thing properly but I do know this, His grace reaches me and trusting in His grace, I trust His promises through His Son. Faithfulness is trusting the faithfulness of God as I live for Him and His will!! We aren't exempt from suffering. We stand in His grace for eternity!