Faith or Faithfulness

“Personal trustworthiness is the foundation for faith in God!”

In this series on Faith, I've written a great deal on what faith is not. Last week asked you to ask yourself, Why do you believe the way you do. Today, I would like for us to get to the heart of what faith is. And I think we could summarize it in one word, "Faithfulness." You see I think that Faith is actually an action word, nothing more, nothing less.

Perhaps one of the most influential passages of scripture that is the foundational rock for many Christians today in the passage of Hebrews 11:1 that says, "Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

Now of course, there are many versions of this passage thanks to the many various Bible translations like the KJV, the NIV, ESV, etc. Now, have you ever read the entire chapter without stopping at verse one? If we were to read all the way to verse 39, you might see something very interesting that the writer of the book of Hebrews is trying to focus on when it comes to faith.

Here are a few of those verse in Hebrews Chapter 11:

"By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead." [Hebrew 11:3]

"By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God." [Hebrews 11:4]

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." [Hebrews 11:8]

And there are of course many other examples of something happening By Faith. Here is the main point that the writer of Hebrews is attempting to make in all of Chapter 11. The writer is giving examples of so form of action taking place. Whether that action came from God, a person, or from both. There is an undertaking, a deed, activity, or effort of some sort happening. The other important part is that there is trustworthiness that is at the heart of that specific act or undertaking.

What does it mean to be trustworthy?

Trust—or the belief that someone or something can be relied on to do what they say they will—is a key element of social relationships and a foundation for cooperation. It is critical for personal relationships, friendships, interactions between strangers, and social groups on a large scale, and a lack of trust in such scenarios can come with serious consequences. Society as a whole would likely fail to function in the absence of trust.

This is even more true when it comes to our relationship with God. I grew up hearing about how important it is for us to trust God. However, here is a question I asked myself once and now I will ask of you, "Can God put his trust us?"

You see it's not simply whether or not we can put our trust in God. We also have to realize that He needs to know that we can also be trustworthy. Consider this, Jesus is confronted by a Pharisee, one who is described as an expert in the law. He asks Jesus an important question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Now Jesus does an awesome job.

He answers this expert of the Law (i.e. meaning someone who was considered a scholar of the Biblical text) by saying, “‘Love the Lord your'e God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:34-40]

The point that Jesus is making is that both Loving God and loving your neighbor are connected by one single word....Love. In fact, he points out to us that All of the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments. What Jesus means is that ALL of the Bible hangs on or can be understood and accomplished by one word, Love. Now I asked, Can God trust us?

The reason I asked this is because if other people in our lives cannot trust us, then how can God trust us? Jesus showed in his response to this expert of the Law that you can't Love God and no Love your neighbor, and you can't be unloving toward your neighbor and say you love God. Would this also not be true when it comes to trust or being trustworthy?

Let's take someones marriage relationship. If there is no trust in that marriage, which is going to be greatly affected by our faithfulness to that person we are married too, can we really say we have a healthy relationship? Of course not. Trust is built on ones faithfulness, not only to that person, but to the entire relationship itself. So then what is Faithfulness?

Faithfulness is a commitment to knowing that you're more valuable than the situation you feel oppressed into. Your partner's ability to hear, understand and validate your experience is key to returning to faithfulness. An unfaithful relationship presents a choice: do the work or get out. People in unfaithful relationships can be miserable and hopeless, trapped in the sadness of sacrificing themselves. It can start to feel like you’ve given up and are trudging through life. You feel too discouraged to address the relationship’s challenges because it would require actually admitting to yourself that your internal fantasy world and your external lived world are at extreme odds, which can evoke further shame, self-disgust, and hopelessness.

Over time your emotional health deteriorates. You feel resigned to misery and undeserving of more. You feel like you’re not a “fighter.” You keep trying to make the best of it, but without communication, you are left feeling more dissatisfied each day.

I don't think this is the kind of relationship nor life any of us which to live. It's certainly not the kind of relationship God wants to have with us, nor is it the kind of relationship He wants us to have with one another. Faithfulness can be cultivated and sustained only when we acknowledge the value of our independent self within any relationship and while at the same time also acknowledging other people's value.

Let's go back to marriage as an example of this. Being invested in and supportive of how your partner spends his or her day, and having your partner be a respectful proponent of how you spend your day – regardless of how you spend it – also enhances faithfulness. If necessary, it requires feeling the disappointment of your partner’s reluctance to acknowledge your independent self to the point that you insist on honest communication to help him or her to understand. Faithfulness is a commitment to knowing that you’re more valuable than the situation you feel oppressed into.

Your partner’s ability to hear, understand and validate your experience is key to faithfulness. Think on this for our relationship with God. He values your independent self. It is why he gave you Free Will, the ability and right to choose. Just because He didn't answer your prayer, doesn't mean we shouldn't have faith in Him. It is Him valuing your independent self.

For example, let's say a person is struggling with their marriage. And they go to God asking him to fix it. He can't, because first off, if he stepped in to wave His hand and fix the problem, then He no longer values you! By stepping in a fixing the problem in your relationship for you takes away the right of your independent self. I chose to marry my wife, I chose to build a relationship with her, and now I have to choose as to whether or not I am going to be faithful in every aspect of that relationship.

Faithfulness in a relationship doesn't just have to do with not cheating on them. It also has to do with me being faithful to how we communicate with one another, how I treat her, value her, and even more importantly, how faithful I am in becoming the kind of person she needs in your life. Integrity is built by me being faithful, compassion exists from faithfulness, and trust cannot exist nor grow if I am not faithful to being someone trustworthy.

Regardless of what I may believe, what I DO is what creates the faith my partner or any person can have in me. God has already shown throughout human history that we can trust him because of his faithfulness to His word. But if I cannot even be faithful in my marriage, how can I say that I am faithful to my relationship with God? So here is what I have for you this week.

Work on being faithful in your relationship with your partner, your family, even with your coworkers first. Because when you do that, you've already become faithful and trustworthy in Gods eyes!

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