Sunday, February 11, 2007

Day 11: Faithfulness

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 3:3

Faithfulness is a virtue I grow to appreciate more and more as I age. One of the best sermons I heard Andy Stanley preach during the years we lived in Atlanta was on the importance of remembering the deeds of the Lord. I wrote down something Andy shared and have repeated it countless times. "When God's faithfulness and our faith intersect lives are changed. We grow deeper in our relationship with Him each time we trust Him and He comes through." As I have matured in my faith and lived long enough to see several examples of bad things happening to fine people, I have realized that Jesus' parable about the wise man building his house on the rock has a deep point a lot of people overlook.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27

The circumstances were the same for both the wise man and the foolish man. The rains came. Our faith does not prevent bad things from occuring--it simply solidifies us and enables us to keep standing through the storm. I pray that K, R, P (and me, myself & I) will have a faith that proves itself to be the real deal when tested.

Faith is not required when the future is certain and life is charmed...but the rains, inevitably, will come. May my children (and yours) be found faithful when it counts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I once learned that the time to build one's foundation is not when the rains are already falling. Rather, we need to build our foundations beforehand, so that once the storm comes, we can be found to be faithful.

May it be so with my children!

Chris

Garrett Robinson said...

What a relevant subject to today's blog (for me)... my friend lost her sweet 3-year-old daughter to cancer yesterday morning and the subject of faithfulness has been heavy on my heart.

God allows suffering for reasons I cannot understand. I know that we cannot see all that he sees does, and during difficult times - I have to remind myself of this.

Thank you for sharing. I do not know you, but it is of comfort to be able to read the view points of Christian moms.

Jessica said...

Thank you for this post! Beautifully written... and I love that you are praying these things specifically for your little ones!

ps... LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog's new look!