Faithfulness-Positive Influence Trait #7

Good morning everyone and welcome to day 9 of the #31days2021 writing challenge . We are going to focus on the positive influence trait of faithfulness. As I have been prepping for this post I struggled with the fact that we are generally unfaithful people- we a wishy-washy. We get distracted so easily and we lose sight of our priorities and what is the most important,

When I think of faithfulness I think about how faithful God is to us.BUT because God is faithful we are called to be faithful as well. And that got me thinking about who we are to be faithful to.

Faithfulness in a nutshell

There are two groups of we should be faithful too.

God
People

HA! that takes care of everyone! But seriously though those are who we should be faithful too. But before we can talk about what exactly that looks like, we must first understand WHAT faithfulness is.

Faithfulness

The definition of being faithful is remaining loyal and steadfast. In light of this we see that we are truly a very wishy-washy people. And the interesting thing is the only way we can do this is by denying our selfish ambitions.. (are you beginning to draw the same conclusions I am as we dive deeper into these positive influence traits?).

So what does our faithfulness look like ?

To God

A number of years ago I was in the middle of a bible study. And even though I KNEW what devotions are (even though we “know” stuff sometimes it takes a while for it to sink in and when it does be become responsible to apply it to the best of our abilities.) I came to a deeper understanding of what devotions meant.

So let’s talk about devotions.

Devotions I know I have talked about this a couple of times in the past. But I think we toss around the word “devotions” or “devos” without fulling understanding what exactly it means. Having devotions is the outpouring of being DEVOTED to God When you are devoted to someone or something is means that you are very loving and loyal…..Hmm there’s loyal again.

Loyalty

Loyal means giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution..

I know that life happens and schedules are busy but it’s during those times when we say even if I am crazy busy, my relationship with God is too important to me to let go of , so I will still take the time to spend with him. Sometimes that means a few minutes and other times that might mean an even bigger chunk of time. But that is what being faithful is about! Making that choice to be loyal even in the middle of the mess- even in the middle of the busy- even in the middle of the hard. It is the attitude and commitment of “even if….I still will…”

And then there the people.

People

People are hard. It’s because of that selfish ambition we keep talking about. Whether it’s theirs OR our own.

People hurt us and we hurt people. We let our own circumstances get in the way and we forget that our friends and family have their own hard things. And it’s easy to get frustrated and assume intentions and blah blah blah. It’s easy to get lost in the all of the emotions that come with selfish ambitions.

But we can choose to not harbor those emotions and frustrations and see things from others perspectives. Choosing to be loyal and still show care and concern even if it’s not reciprocated. That’s being faithful. Why is this so important? Because that is exactly what God does for us! Remember a few paragraphs ago when I said that things get in the way with our walk with God? Well even when we become less faithful with our relationship with God- he NEVER stops being faithful to us.

Do Unto others…

We all want our friends to be faithful to us…even when things are going bad for us. SO we should be faithful to them when things aren’t going so well for them. BUT a huge problem stands in the way. ENTITLEMENT (AKA selfish ambition.)

Sometimes we get so clouded by what is going on in our own lives we lose sight of our relationships. And if our family or friends don’t seem as interested in our problems as they once did we get offended or frustrated that they have become too busy for us. We forget that we can’t assume we know what is going on in their lives. We forget to ask them how they are doing because we feel forgotten. And we forget to treat them how we want to be treated. And before we know it we have lost those relationships.

Being faithful to our friends and family requires setting aside all the emotions and hurts …And saying even if…..I still will. ….

I will still Choose

love,
patience,
not to be jealous, boastful, proud or rude
not to demand my own way
not to be irritable
not to keep a record of wrongs
not to rejoice about injustices
to rejoice when truth wins out
not to give up
not to lose faith
to be hopeful
to endure through EVERY circumstance

Now there’s a picture of what true faithfulness for those we care about! That’s the definition of true love! I don’t know about you but I look at that list and I see shortcomings and failures. I know I have let people down in many of those areas.

AND YET…..

Things come full circle when I realize that despite ALL of my shortcomings and ALL of my failures, God is still faithful and he forgives me and takes those broken failures and turns them into beautiful redemption. He is in the habit of redeeming broken things and turning them into something completely beautiful. And that makes me want to be more faithful than ever before.

We can trust him with those tings…BUT we have to choose to! We have a choice to be faithful to God and to those we love. We have a choice to keep our commitments to them.

Now it’s your turn

At each turn along this journey we come face to face with hard questions we need to ask ourselves. It’s hard heart work. But it is absolutely necessary if we want to grow in the Fruit of the Spirit,

Are we willing to set aside our own hurts and pains and ask God to help us be faithful to our friends and family? Are we willing to say even if things don’t go my way am I willing to be faithful to God and to those I know and love?

And are we willing to say Lord not my will but yours AND mean it?

Let me know what is your biggest struggle in the comments below.