“The LORD utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it? “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.” (Joel 2:11-13 NAS)
We have been blessed in so many ways, yet we tend to take God for granted. There are so many temptations in our world and sometimes we yield to them intentionally or not. It is not so much that we are being disobedient as simply lazy and apathetic in our spiritual growth and worship.
Our God is gracious, however, and a loving Father. He is not sitting on his throne just waiting to sling lightening bolts at us for our misdeeds. But he does want us to be faithful to him. And perhaps we should remember that He is strong and mighty. He cannot be defeated and his greatness will be revealed. His day is coming and when it arrives, all humanity will recognize his awesome majesty.
Faithfulness to God is not a simple matter of acceptance and recognition. Faithfulness is not only laying aside every weight and the entanglement of sin. Rather, faithfulness is about the wholehearted turning to God as disciples of Christ. Full devotion in word and in deed.
As faithful disciples, we rend our hearts in sorrow when we disappoint God. The Holy Spirit reminds us to return to faithfulness. He reminds us of our commitment to Christ, therefore we don’t give up and quit. We might think that we can’t be faithful, but God knows we can through Christ whose sacrifice cleanses us from all our faults, failures and sin. Our God is an awesome God! Our God is kind! He is gracious and merciful and slow to anger!
Faithfulness is a lot easier when we know that our God is kind, gracious, merciful, and slow to express his anger. It is also what makes it so easy to fail him. Perhaps our perspective needs a dramatic change. Instead of focusing on our inability to stay faithful, maybe we should focus on Christ’s power to keep us faithful.
God’s grace, mercy, kindness, and longsuffering should produce a spirit of worship in us. Think about it. We can enjoy an intimate relationship with our God because He doesn’t give up on us. Instead, He lovingly calls us back to faithfulness. We can truly worship and enjoy our God!
Our only caveat is: beware not to abuse God’s grace or claim it as an entitlement. It is free to us but not deserved. It cost our Heavenly Father the price of his son’s sacrifice. That alone should drive us to be faithful to Christ.
Dear Father, thank you for your kindness, mercy, grace, and longsuffering. Enable us to be faithful to you through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This I pray in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Be courageous today in your faithfulness to Christ,