Sometimes faith follows faithfulness – Shield of Faith, Part 4

If you’ve been following along with this series of posts on the Shield of Faith (starting here), you might be thinking, “Whew, I’m struggling with faith and faithfulness.”  There is hope. 

True faith is rooted in who God is.  Consider what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”  God is not turning his back on you.  When we are struggling with faith and faithfulness, turn to him. 

When God seems distant, lament to him.  Lament is holy complaint.  Cry out to him. 

The ancient psalmist King David writes in Psalm 13, “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.”

In that last verse he talks about God’s unfailing love.  That word “unfailing” can be and is translated “faithful” in other places in the Old Testament.

The Psalms are loaded with reminders of God’s faithfulness.  Psalm 89 has numerous descriptions of God’s faithfulness.  Here are just a few verses:

“I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. … The heavens praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. … Who is like you, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.”

But if you are looking around you, and you are feeling the temptations of the world, you might be thinking, I am not holding up that shield of faith very well.  My guard is down, I feel alone. The flaming arrows of temptation are hitting me and I am giving in. 

This might sound counterintuitive, but sometimes it is only after we are faithful that we have faith, belief.  I’m not talking about perfect faithfulness.  I’m talking about perseverance, faithful in our pursuit of God over the long haul, with all its ups and downs.  It seems that Jesus’ disciples are a case in point. They are following Jesus, sometimes struggling, sometimes faithful, learning to do what he did.  But at the moment he needed them most, one betrayed him, one denied him, and all but John ran away and hid for their lives.  But after Jesus rose from the dead, he restored them, assured them, even so-called doubting Thomas, and denying Peter, and they grew in their faith and faithfulness.

Sometimes it is only after we practice faithful living, doing good works over the long haul, that we believe.  Do what’s right, and often it will not feel good initially. You might not like it for a while.  You might really be struggling to believe it is worth it.  Press on. 

Why press on? We’ll find out why in the next post.

Photo by Jackson David on Unsplash