A faithful person honors, cherishes, and guards the trust of others by consistently keeping their promises. While God embodies this perfect reliability, human nature often falls short. This reality is captured perfectly in the ancient proverb: “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Prov. 20:6).
If we are honest, we must admit that this proverbial description fits us more often than we would like to acknowledge. Maintaining true faithfulness requires more than just good intentions; it demands a level of integrity that is rare in a world of broken commitments.
The truth may be uncomfortable, but recognizing our own inconsistency is the first step toward growth. By examining the gap between our proclamations of steadfast love and our actual actions, we can begin to cultivate the character of a truly faithful person.
But God knows us, and when he wounds his children with a truth, his purpose is to heal us (Hos. 6:1) and set us free (John 8:32). Our Father is faithful to keep his promise to conform us to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29), the “faithful witness” (Rev. 1:5). And he does this, not by downloading faithfulness into us like a software upgrade, but by “training us . . . to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:12). Like all training, growing in faithfulness is an arduous process.
We all like the idea of a stronger, slimmer body, or becoming proficient in a skill, or building more effective habits for more sustained productivity. But no transformation happens without starting the painful work of exercising what’s weak and staying with it until it grows stronger.
The same is true of faithfulness. We all like the idea of being true to the love we’ve proclaimed, the commitments we’ve made, and the responsibilities God has entrusted to us. But if unfaithfulness has become a sinful habit in a certain area, because selfishness has taken root and we lack the fortitude to swear to our own hurt and not change (Ps. 15:4), no transformation will occur without the hard, painful work of exercising faithfulness.
The good news is that God has provided us everything we need to start exercising today. Our training regimen is structured around Psalm 37:3: “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.” Today’s exercises in befriending faithfulness are to do whatever it takes for us to trust in the Lord for the grace to diligently do good to the people and through the responsibilities he’s entrusted to us, in the place (land) we find ourselves, with the resources he provides. And to do our “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Col. 3:23).
God is faithful to teach us faithfulness so that we increasingly—like him—honor, cherish, maintain, and guard the faith of those who put their trust in us by being truer to our word. And he will teach us here, in the “land” where he’s placed us. And if we befriend faithfulness here, someday our Master will say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:23).
Adapted from True To His Word by Jon Bloom (© 2023). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.