Faithfulness

Lamentations 3:22 "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end: they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness."
Hebrews 10:23: "For He is faithful that promised."

Picking up where we left off a couple of weeks ago, we were considering the Fruit of the Spirit as found in Galatians 5:22, 23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…". The fruit (or grape as we have referred to each of them) for this week is Faith, or Faithfulness. We use the word ‘faith’ to signify our confidence in God; the term ‘faithful’ is used to describe a person who is trustworthy. Some other characteristics of a person we call faithful would be reliable, loyal, dependable, one who keeps promises.

Jesus is our example of faithfulness. He promised not to leave His friends as orphans, and the Holy Spirit came, coming to each of us who are His children. He said "because I live, you shall live also." (John 14:19) and we have eternal life. In Hebrews 3:2 it states "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever". Jesus is dependable.

Faithfulness is one of God’s attributes, and it is an attribute He shares with us through the Holy Spirit. The book of Psalms is filled with thanksgiving of God’s faithfulness. We can manifest this Faithfulness also in each of our lives, as it is a ‘fruit of the Spirit.’

"Happy the man whose hopes rely
On Israel’s God; He made the sky,
And earth, and seas, with all their train,
His truth forever stands secure;
He saves the oppressed, He feeds the poor,
And none shall find His promise vain."
--Isaac Watts

"Great is Thy Faithfulness."