Faithful

One of God's characteristics is faithfulness (Deut 7:9; 1 Thess 5:23-24; 1 Cor 1:9; 2 Tim 2:13; 1 Cor 10:13; 1 John 1:9; 2 Thess 3:3; Lam 3:22-23; Psa 36:5; Psa 86:15; 1 Peter 4:19 and more). Faithfulness. He is constant. He is completely trustworthy. He always does the right thing ... every time.

Most Christians will nod and agree. In theory. We'll sing along with songs about His faithfulness and be glad. In theory. We will extol the virtues of God's faithfulness. In theory. I say "in theory" because we're pretty good at it right up until something occurs that causes us to question it. He is faithful ... until something unpleasant happens. I use "unpleasant" there when most will use "bad" because if God is faithful, nothing actually "bad" can happen to us (Rom 8:28). So the simple fact that we refer to these types of things as "bad" argues against our confidence in His faithfulness.

The Bible argues that we aren't always clear thinkers. We aren't always truthful, aren't always understanding, aren't always aligned with God's truth. As such, we are constantly in need of "remodeling" -- being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2). So we have to try to figure out some standard of what is True and then align ourselves with that rather than vice versa. We need to recognize, "Regardless of what else I see or feel or think, this is true, so I can rely on this."

So the question now becomes, "Is God truly faithful?" If we say, "Yes," then we also need to adjust our thinking to align with that. We need to be evaluating all of life from that Truth. We need to shape our understanding of reality to Truth rather than perception. We all suffer hardships. We all endure trials. We all have doubts, large and small. We need to find an anchor with which we can weather the storms. I'm convinced that the character of God as revealed in His Word is the best anchor you can find. One of the best links in the chain on that anchor is His faithfulness. Hold on to that one.