{"id":23,"date":"2008-04-21T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-21T14:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25551729.post-6324125800293385861"},"modified":"2009-07-06T10:23:33","modified_gmt":"2009-07-06T17:23:33","slug":"got-potential-2008-04-21-145000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/gods-purpose\/got-potential-2008-04-21-145000","title":{"rendered":"Fruit of the Spirit – Faithfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Purpose<\/span><\/p>\n

Vol. 2 Issue 8February 21, 2008<\/span>
\nThe weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing<\/span><\/p>\n

Faithfulness<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness<\/strong>, gentleness and self-control.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Galatians 5:22)<\/p>\n

Holman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Illustrated Bible Dictionary<\/em><\/span> has a pretty extensive entry under \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faith\/Faithfulness<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d expect that. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faith<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153faithfulness<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are pretty big subjects in the Bible. But here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the part in the Holman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/span> definition that caught my eye: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 faith (a human response to God) and faithfulness (a virtue of God and his servants).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\nIt seems like we keep coming back to the idea that these attributes (the fruit of the Spirit) that God wants us to have are really attributes of God Himself. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lived under this idea (at least I have) that the Bible is a list of rules for human behavior: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God wants you to be good, to be faithful, to be kind, to be gentle, to love, to experience joy, to have peace.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/em>But the bigger message is that God is good<\/em>, God is kind<\/em>, God is gentle<\/em>, God is the author of love<\/em>, joy<\/em> and peace<\/em>. God is saying, simply, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Be like Me<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot more personal than I had imagined.<\/p>\n

So, in light of Holman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/em><\/span> definition, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the difference between \u00e2\u20ac\u0153faith<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153faithfulness<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? To me, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the difference between an act<\/em> and a habit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When I was first presented with the Gospel, the message of who God is and how He wants to interact with me; and I either had to accept that it might be true or might not be true. If I accepted that the message might be true I had to believe in it enough to act on it. When I acted on it, that was faith.<\/p>\n

That initial act of faith may not have been too powerful on my account, I probably just raised my hand in public or mouthed a silent prayer; but it was sufficient as far as God was concerned \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 for the moment.<\/p>\n

*****<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re old enough, you remember what a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Red Man Writing Tablet<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was. It had a red paper cover with a picture of an Indian on the front. The pages were a sort of wood-pulpy grayish-white and they had rows of lines printed on them. Each row consisted of a solid top and bottom line with a dashed line in the middle.<\/p>\n

These were the tablets on which we practiced writing our ABC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in first grade. We were taught to stay inside the lines and that the capital letters reached from top to bottom, but the lower-case letters couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come above dashed line in the middle (unless they had little sticks like b\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s). My six year-old intuition told me that that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why they were called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lower-case.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Technically, I learned to write when I was six. Upper-case, lower-case<\/em>, Aa, Bb, Cc; I knew \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem all, all twenty-six of them. That was my first act of writing.<\/p>\n

As the years went by and I progressed through the first grade, second grade and beyond; I practiced and my writing advanced. By third grade I was learning cursive. By sixth grade I was writing stories. By eighth grade I had a pen-pal in Belgium. The older I got the more I learned what writing was all about.<\/p>\n

Today I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pushing fifty and still writing. Some days I do a lot better than those stories I wrote in grade school \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 some days I wonder. I know this however; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a lot better at writing today than I was that first day I put pencil to my Red Man tablet. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping that ten years from now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be a lot better at writing than I am today. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a progression; a habit. The more I practice it the more I learn.<\/p>\n

*****<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about as close as I can come to explaining faith and faithfulness. For us, faith is that first act; like the first time I focused all my concentration on making that first \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A a\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on to the next act and the next. Each act of faith grows us just a little.<\/p>\n

With each act of faith we become just a little more comfortable with acting out our faith. By persistence we get better; but then the challenges to our faith tend to get a little bigger too. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like writing lessons. The lessons I faced in fifth grade composition were a lot tougher than those I conquered in third grade cursive. They planned it that way. It was a progression. I was supposed to be making progress with each lesson; tackling tougher problems as I practiced.<\/p>\n

Faith is a progression. Each lesson is a little tougher than the last. When that progression becomes a habit, or as Holman<\/em><\/span> says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a virtue<\/em>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d faith <\/em>becomes faithfulness<\/em>. Faithfulness is a kind of running record of acting on faith.<\/p>\n

Another thing I noticed was that the Bible mentions God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faithfulness several times, but never states that God has faith or acted on faith.<\/p>\n

Faithfulness is a sign that, through the Holy Spirit, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re taking on God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attributes; having faith or acting on faith isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an attribute of God. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our territory only. God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need faith and He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to act on faith. But He is faithful.<\/p>\n

Faith, according to Webster<\/em><\/span>, is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trust, confidence, complete acceptance of a truth which cannot be demonstrated or proved by the process of logical thought.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\nThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need faith. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of all truth; He was there at the beginning<\/em> and He will be there at the ending<\/em> of all things. As a matter of fact, ideas like beginning and ending don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the same relevance to God as they do to us; because He exists beyond our sense of time and space; beyond past and future. He knows the past and future because He is<\/em> in the past and He is<\/em> in the future. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153going<\/em> to be<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He just is<\/em>. That concept defies man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s logic; which is exactly why we need faith and He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

Faithfulness is another matter. Faithfulness denotes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reliability<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trustworthiness to adhere to an original precept.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\nFaithfulness, on God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side of the equation, means that He can be trusted to reliably complete what He started or bring about what He promised. Faithfulness, on man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side of the equation, if faith is defined as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mans response to God<\/em>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means a reliability in responding to God.<\/p>\n

To respond to God by trusting that what He says is true and then acting upon it is faith<\/em>. To make a habit of reliably responding to God by trusting that what He says is true and continually acting upon it is faithfulness<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Faithfulness<\/em> then, in the relationship between you and God, is God reliably doing what He says He will do and you trusting that He will and reliably acting on it.<\/p>\n

So how do you develop the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153virtue<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of faithfulness? Practice, practice practice.<\/p>\n

Respond to God. Trust that what He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saying is true, in spite of your ability to justify it logically. Act (another word for obey) based on what you know God wants you to do and trust that He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll keep His promise. Do it over and over again until it becomes part of your resume. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faithfulness.<\/p>\n

God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect you to live a life of blind trust though. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll throw evidence your way that your faith is working. Be prepared though. Like I said, this faithfulness stuff is a process. Just when you think you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting the hang of it, a challenge comes along that your logic can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cope with. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called faith; each step gets a little bigger.<\/p>\n

I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that Jesus was just being metaphorical when he told his disciples, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMove from here to there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Matthew 17:20)<\/p>\n

We make it a metaphor because we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe it; it defies our logic. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of the point of faith, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? What defies your logic right now? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thing you know you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to do that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible?<\/p>\n

If God says that nothing is impossible and you \u00e2\u20ac\u0153respond to God<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by obeying Him even though the chances of success \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cannot be demonstrated or proved by the process of logical thought<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re acting on faith.<\/p>\n

You act on faith, God proves Himself faithful, and the thing your logic told you was impossible yesterday is now possible. Your logic readjusts and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ready to move up the next \u00e2\u20ac\u0153impossible<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d task. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a progression. Keep at it long enough and moving the mountain doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem so metaphorical.<\/p>\n

*****<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

By the way, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t learn to write that day I scratched my first capital A on the Red Man page. I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t finished learning to write yet. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a process, a progression.<\/p>\n

If you think \u00e2\u20ac\u0153faithfulness<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d began and ended the day you lifted your hand in church or mouthed a silent prayer, think again. That was an act of faith; your first but not your last. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faithfulness<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a progression. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sitting fat and happy in the Christian life and your faith hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been challenged for a while, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better check your progress.<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s job is to mold you into the likeness of God. How you know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working is demonstrated when you start taking on attributes that belong to God; kindness<\/em>, goodness<\/em>, faithfulness<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the fruit of the Holy Spirit. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fruit<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153produce<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153product<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153result<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The end result of the Holy Spirit doing its work in you is that you begin to take on the likeness of God. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a single event; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lifelong process.<\/p>\n

I promise, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not there yet; neither am I. But we will be one day. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way He meant for us to be in the beginning and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way we will to be in the end.<\/p>\n

Until next week, In Him,<\/p>\n

Steve Spillman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Purpose Vol. 2 Issue 8February 21, 2008 The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing Faithfulness But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Galatians 5:22) Holman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Illustrated Bible Dictionary has a pretty extensive entry under \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faith\/Faithfulness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d expect that. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faith\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153faithfulness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are pretty big subjects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[134,6,16,7],"tags":[871,538,879,539],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-gods-purpose","category-love","category-purpose","tag-faith","tag-faithfulness","tag-trust","tag-virtue"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}