Living in Faithfulness - Part Four

This is my fourth time writing on what it means to live in faithfulness. If you have not seen the other posts yet, you can find them here, here, and here. This week, I think it’s finally time to tie all of what we have learned over these past three articles together.

To recap, we have explored now that what it means to live in faithfulness is to live in trust and reliance on God. We have seen that when it comes to living in faithfulness it is important to look to how the Bible says things are supposed to be without the presence of sin in this world. This is because the entirety of scripture tells the story of how God is hard at work trying to set this fallen world back to right, and so if you don’t start from the point that the world God is trying to redeem is worth redeeming in the first place, it is not really possible to trust and rely on God at all. We then learned that when God created all things, however that was done, he said that they were good, including us human beings. Showing that there is some inherent worth in his creation by nature of God saying there is. Then we then saw how we human beings were made in God’s image, that is from the moment of our creation, made in a relationship with God, with fellow human beings, and with the rest of creation as well. Humanity cannot exist without these relationships. They mark who we are as made in the image of God, and so in a real way they define what it means to be human as well. Finally, we looked at how in the fall, when sin entered the world, these relationships became warped, stretched and mangled. They are all still there, but suddenly we human beings are hiding from the God that loves us, at odds and destructive towards creation all around us, and throwing one another under the bus for things we did. This is not how things should be, this is not how we should be, but living in a fallen world means that it is a description of the way things are.

And so, with the recap done, what does this all have to do with us living in faithfulness to God? Well, as I mentioned before, the entire Bible is telling the story of how God has been hard at work trying to set all creation back to right; to save us from our sin. As such, to live in faithfulness, trust and reliance on our creator, means that we have to trust that being on board with this work our God is doing is the right thing for us to do as well. And if that is true, and from our past few discussions, we have seen roughly both the order of how things should be, as well as how they are now, then taken all together what that means is that for us to live in faithfulness is for us to work with God’s help to reclaim what it is to live as the image of God we were created to be before sin caused all its devastation in the first place.

To live in faithfulness, to live in trust and reliance on God, is to work with the Lord’s help to fix the relationships that define us as made in God’s image. This means, to live in faithfulness, to live in trust and reliance on God, is to work with God’s help to build the relationship we have with God. This means, to live in faithfulness, to live in trust and reliance on God, is to work with God’s help to build the relationship we have with the rest of creation. This means, to live in faithfulness, to live in trust and reliance on God, is to work with God’s help to build the relationship we have with all the rest of humanity as well.

This is what it means for us to live in faithfulness to God and nothing less. And as you go through your bibles, and you see how God has been at work, and you see the commands he gives to us, this is what he is trying to achieve, and nothing less. And when you see Christ in the gospels, and you live with him through all that he does throughout his life, death, resurrection and beyond, this is what he is modelling for you as to what needs to be done to live in faithfulness and nothing less. And when you feel the guiding of the Holy Spirit in your life today, leading you in the way you should go and help you to build the kingdom of God in the world around you, this is what he is helping you do and nothing less.

But what does this mean as to how we should live in faithfulness to God in more practical ways? Well if living in faithfulness to God means working with his help to build your relationship with our Lord, then what that has to mean is you need to work on building that relationship up. You can do that as you would build any relationship. Spend time in conversation with our God, that is in prayer. Spend time in your Bible, learning about who our God is and what he has done for us. Spend time in church and with other believers discussing your faith to go deeper into it. Spend time talking about who our God is and living out how he calls you to be with all those around you, building the kingdom he wishes to see come in the here and now. Work to see all things the way that God does, as fundamentally worth your while. That is how you can begin to work to restore your relationship with God.

If living in faithfulness to God means working with his help to build your relationship with creation, then what that has to mean is you need to work on building that relationship up as well. You can do that by taking seriously God’s command for us human beings to be the good stewards of His creation. Work to become less wasteful. Learn to stop overindulging, a difficult thing to do in our society to be sure. Make a habit of walking through God’s creation, making note of all of nature around you. Make a point to soak it in. Find the places where the world is being destroyed and with your effort, time and resources, work to undo that destruction. Right now there is no single place this is a greater problem than with the effects of climate change, so find alternatives in your life to lessen your carbon footprint and help others to in whatever way they can as well. When God made the world around us, he showed his love for it by saying that it was good, so be someone who does not just live in the creation but is the cause of its thriving as well.

And if living in faithfulness to God means working with his help to build your relationship with other human beings made in his Image, then what that has to mean is you need to work on building those relationships up also. Work to see others as loved by God, all equal in his eyes. Show your love for others, treating them as you would want those you love to be treated. Care for them when they are sick. Talk to them when they are lonely. Work to address the needs that they have. Do not be judgemental, and when tensions arise, be the one working to bring peace not that papers over problems, but instead that lasts. Work to see people of the opposite gender as loved and equal under God as you are. Work to see those younger and older than you as loved and equal under God as you are. Be the one in your community or town who others see as caring for them. Be the one in your community who builds up the world around you; who causes life to flourish

And finally, if we work from the assumption that to live in faithfulness is to live in trust and reliance on God, we need to take seriously how God loves us as well, trusting that caring for ourselves as God cares for us is the right thing to do. So care for your health. Go to the doctor if need be. Work to prevent bad health from finding you in the first place. See a councillor when the need arises. Take time to recharge. Realize that rarely is forcing yourself to live in misery the right thing to do.

And I think I will end this post there. These are just a handful of ways to live in faithfulness to our God. And as I said before, the Bible is packed full with many, many more examples as well. I hope you spend the time to find out what they are.