“You
are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the
Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before You,
and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the
Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the
Girgashite. And you have kept Your promise, for You are righteous.”
Nehemiah 9:8-9 ESV
We are
not on these paths by accident. God has placed us here, appointed us for this
journey we are now travelling. God chose Abram, just like He has chosen us. He
chose Abram to spread his wings and set out on a journey of faith, and to trust
in His ability to do what He said He would do. To understand what it means for
us to be faithful, we need to take a look at the source of all faithfulness.
“He
who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:24
1 Thessalonians 5:24
One of
my biggest pet peeves is when I ask someone to do something and they tell me
they will get right on it. I wait and wait for a few days, but they still have
not done what I have asked of them. I am a results driven person so when this
happens I usually end up getting frustrated and doing the project myself. How
many times have we prayed and asked the Lord to do something for us, to come
through on our behalf and He has not? God is always faithful to do what He says
He will do. He may not move as quickly as we ask, or He may not do it when we
want it done, but He always does it. He is always faithful to do what He says
He will do.
This
same characteristic found in our God should be reflected in His children, in every
single one of us. In business and in life, if someone asks you to do something
and you agree to do it- then do it. Don’t make excuses to them or to yourself.
Be faithful. Be constant and consistent in your relationships to people.
Faithfulness means to be consistent, to be steady and constant; it means to be
unwavering and unchanging. Your yes means yes and your no means no.
One of
the areas of my life that I am convicted of in regards to faithfulness is
prayer. Someone will ask me to pray for them and I will tell them of course I
will pray. Then a few days go by and the Lord reminds me that I have not said
the prayer, I have not done what I said I would do. Our God is faithful. He is
constant and consistent with all His dealings with us. Hebrews 13:8 tells us
that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, our God, is the same yesterday, today
and forever. A faithful person does not change, nor do they feel the need to
change with the current trends and tides of this world. They are consistent to
deliver on their promises; they are constant and firm in all that they do.
Our God
promises to bring us to the end of this journey. He will and is faithful to do
it. We must trust and walk in His faithfulness. The same is true of us in
business. Others must be able to depend on our services. They must be able to
trust that we are faithful to finish the work we have promised to do. Being in
a service based industry I have made a promise to fulfill the needs of our
clients. If I want the Lord to bless the work of this company, and the work of
my hands then I must be trustworthy. If I want the clients to keep coming back,
then I must be faithful and trustworthy, someone they can depend on.
In
Nehemiah 9:8 we are told that God found Abraham’s heart to be faithful before
Him. God tested Abraham over and over again. I myself find that I am faced with
decisions that try my faithfulness in this business. There are times when I could
easily skip out early on a visit and not give the client the full 30 minutes of
walking that they have paid for. The dog won’t say anything, and how will the
client ever really know? I find these tests before me every day, testing me and
trying my faithfulness to be consistent in all that I do. If we truly want to
be faithful in all that we do, if we want to hear from our Lord that He found
our hearts to be faithful before Him then we must choose to be consistent and
constant in all our dealings.
Faithful
followers of God do not compromise their integrity no matter the trial, test or
challenge that they face. They walk in obedience, firmly trusting
and believing that He who promised is faithful and He will do it. “No temptation has overtaken you except that
which is common to man; but God is faithful who will not allow you to be
tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the
way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV)
There are no excuses for compromise when it comes to being faithful before the
Lord. We may be tempted, but our God has given us a way out through faith and
trust in His ability to keep His promises.
No
matter the tests and challenges that you will face every day we must remain
faithful, unwilling to change, to compromise in what we do, how we do it and
why we do it. Nehemiah goes on to tell us in verse 8 that God made a covenant
with Abraham to give his offspring the blessings of the Promised Land. Abraham’s
offspring is now standing in that same Promised Land, praising God and giving glory
to His name for He is and always will be faithful. God keeps His promises, and
so should we.
If you
want to be successful on this journey and if you want to be blessed with the fullness
of His promises, then let your heart be found faithful before Him. Let your yes
and yes and your no be no. (Matthew 5:37) Remember that faithful followers of God do
not compromise their integrity no matter the tests or trials that may come upon
them. Abraham laid the promised seed, Isaac, upon the altar, fully
trusting that He who promised was faithful. Take some time to go before the
Lord and ask Him to reveal those areas of your heart that need faithfulness.
Ask Him to show you the areas that you may be compromising, that you may be
letting slip by, not walking in consistency before Him and others. I pray that
we may be found faithful before Him today. In Jesus Name, Amen and Amen.
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