i have often experienced a prevalence of people talking about the faithfulness of God when it looks like He is doing something. when the money comes in or when the spouse/child/friend survives the surgery. when everyone is safe or the business makes it another year.
but the truth of it is
God is ALWAYS faithful, even when it looks like He isn’t.
it is in His nature to be faithful. He can’t be anything but faithful.
i dare say it is the most important to remember His faithful nature in the times that it doesn’t really seem like it.
what i don’t mean is simply disregard your fear or feelings or circumstances. i am not saying ignore what is happening. what i am saying is don’t give the fear or feelings or circumstances more power than God in your life. He is God and He won’t stand to be mocked.
one of my favorite verses is joshua 21:45.
Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.
all of them. not some of them. not most of them. there wasn’t a single promise that God made to His people that He didn’t come through on. i know. i get it. sometimes it just doesn’t look like He is coming through. it looks like He has placed dreams in your heart and then left you. it looks like He didn’t do what you asked Him to do. it looks like disappointment. but the sad reality, in my experience, is the places where i doubt His faithfulness have nothing to do with His promises and everything to do with my expectations.
we think He promises us things but they are actually only the things we want. the things we desire. they may not even be bad things but they are our things.
and there in lies our journey i think.
we are on this journey of becoming spiritually free as St. Ignatius terms it. this place where we can be detached from/indifferent to life. that doesn’t mean that we have no passion or goals or ambition. it means that go wherever God is going simply because He is going there, whether poverty or riches, singleness or marriage, dream job or mcdonalds. (for further reading and clarification on this idea check out this incredibly well written blog.)
if God is not faithful what is the point of my faith?! if i don’t believe He will come through with what He promised (He won’t leave me as an orphan, He will comfort me, He will save me, He will satisfy me, etc) why am i doing what i am doing??? i think too often we go through life doing what we are doing because it is just what we do not because we have an amazing “why” behind it. without your “why”, however, it can’t last long. without a “why” you forget and you quit.
my “why” is because He has been proving Himself faithful from day one. sure i have been disappointed. sure i have suffered great loss and endured much pain. sure i still experience dreams deferred. and in spite of all of that He has met me. He has proven His faithfulness even in the darkest of hours. in the moments i doubted the most, He was near.
if you are wondering if He is faithful, ask Him to show you all the times He has been. ask him to show you all the times He has been faithful when it was a difficult/hard/painful season. sometimes i find it frustrating that it seems i grow the most from the “bad” times but it is true. and it is in the moments of Him being faithful in the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ that my faith is made firm.
it is easy to see God’s faithfulness when it is sunny and happy. it isn’t always so in the dark place but are you anticipating His faithfulness or are you anticipating He is going to fail you? either way…He wants to meet with you. He wants to walk with you and talk about it. He doesn’t want to sweep it under the carpet and pretend like your feelings don’t exists. He sees them. He hears you. He knows your heart. and He wants to be with you through all of it! so ask Him about it.