The Need for Faithfulness

What do we mean by "faithfulness"? It is not a word that I use regularly. Mostly it is in the contexts of ministry, "he/she is a faithful servant of Christ," or in marriage, "they are faithful to each other." Perhaps today we use words like "diligent" or "loyal" to express faithfulness.

I have been doing a lot of thinking on faithfulness in regards to the life of Abraham. Specifically Genesis 16, where Abe and Sarai opt for "plan B" in regards to fulfilling God's promises. At this point in the story, God has already approached Abraham and made promises to him (Gen 12:1-3), and He has already committed Himself in covenant to Abraham (Gen 15). But the narrative in Genesis 16 takes place 10 years after these promises! That means that every day that Sarai was not pregnant was another day of hope being dashed. Imagine waking up each morning, wondering if today is the day that God is going to be faithful to His word, only to find out as you lay your head on the pillow at night that another day has gone; another day of seeing God not fulfill His promise. Not only would the waiting be agonizing, but also the pressure of knowing that your body is quickly losing any chance of being able to accomplish God's promise. God had promised them a multitude of descendants (among other things), and yet Sarai was barren. Now she is 75. It is easy for me to sympathize with Sarai's "plan B". She opts for a culturally acceptable alternative: she provides Abraham with another wife in order for him to bear children through her. Unfortunately, this is not what God's initial promises entailed, and "plan B" brings problems and only superficial solutions. To finish the biblical narrative, we see that 14 years later God again visits Abe and Sarai to tell them that next year they are going to have a son. This puts Abe's age at 100 and Sarai's at 90 when Isaac is born. They waited 25 years for God to work!

I find this incredibly challenging to my own faith and faithfulness in that faith. My faith cannot rest on feelings, circumstances or probabilities. It must rest on the sure promises and character of the Lord found in Scripture. And even though Abraham's faith started in a moment in time (Gen 15:6 "Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness."), he still had to daily be full of faith in God's promises for the next 25 years. So faithfulness is trusting in God's character and word (despite hurdles, feelings, circumstances, etc), every moment of the day.

Faithfulness starts with a "one-time event", but its success is measured over the long term.