Daily Faithfulness

[ Reading Time: c6 mins ]

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

Matthew 25:21

For years I have struggled to exercise regularly. I’ve definitely had a stop-start relationship with exercise. However, in 2021 I felt I was finally making some progress. In February, I started the couch to 5k and stuck with it running three times per week. Then in the summer, out of nowhere, I got a back injury that swiftly brought my running streak to an end.

I found it challenging to keep a consistent exercise routine after that. Something needed to change. So I decided to take a different approach and invested in a home exercise bike. I hoped it would allow me to exercise every morning without having to work myself up to jump in the car and get to the gym. It worked; for the first time in my life, I exercised for 17 consecutive days, and surprisingly, I enjoyed it. One morning as I was on my bike singing along to worship songs the phrase ‘daily faithfulness’ dropped into my mind. God was telling me if I would be faithful in showing up daily, just doing a little each day, that I would make progress not only in this area of my life but all areas of my life.

Today's prevailing culture often demands instant results, but real, lasting change rarely happens quickly. Even ‘suddenly’ miracles are often incubated in the womb of the wilderness for a long time before being birthed into the world. We become disciples of Christ by faith and remain disciples of Christ by faith. Faithfulness is woven deeply into the fabric of our relationship with God. God is faithful to us, and in response, we are called to be faithful to Him. While we know we can never mirror God’s level of faithfulness; we are still invited to grow in faithfulness day by day as we trust in Him and imitate Him.

So what does it mean to be faithful?

In the Old Testament, several words are translated as faithful or faithfulness in English. They convey the idea of being trustworthy, steadfast, firm, reliable and true. In the New Testament, the word pistos is translated as faithful, which is used to describe someone who is trustworthy and can be relied on and someone who believes and trusts in the promises of God concerning His son Jesus Christ. Faithfulness speaks of being loyal, steadfast, reliable, believing, true and firm in carrying out our commitments.

By its very nature, Christian faithfulness is a daily decision. We have to show up daily as students and followers of Jesus. The slow work of transformation happens as we make the daily decision to remain in Jesus, take up our cross daily and follow Him. By faithfully remaining in Christ, we become fruitful because when we are faithful, then we are fruitful.

The Daily Faithfulness monthly newsletter is dedicated to exploring what daily faithfulness looks like and sharing insights, tools and resources that will help you live a life of daily faithfulness. God has called us to bear fruit, but I have become persuaded that the pathway to fruitfulness is faithfulness.

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