By Belinda Young
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22
Jesus often spoke in parables using an understandable everyday truth and applied it to a much deeper and far more important truth.
Consider a very simple example of faithfulness. I make my bed every day whether I am at home or away or at someone else’s house, whether I am healthy or whether I am sick. I cannot stand for my bed to be left unmade – the whole room is a mess – I cannot find anything – nothing I do flows – all I see is an unorganized mess.
It does not matter what other people think or what other people do. They may say that I am wasting my time, but my mind needs things organized. It takes two whole minutes to make my room look comfy and inviting by making up my bed. I can truly say that I am faithful in making my bed!
Let us apply that to far more important areas of life. Faith, what I believe with all my heart, cannot be seen. Faithfulness is the action that I do because of my faith – it can be clearly seen. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” You cannot see my faith, right? Oh, but you can! James 2:18 says, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” You can totally see what I believe by what I do and how I behave. Faithfulness is my faith put into action. It does not matter whether anybody else thinks it is important or not. I do what I believe is important. Faith cannot be seen. It is a matter of the heart! Faithfulness is the action that reveals the faith in the heart!
James 1:22 says, “But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” If you are not doing what you say you believe, you really do not believe it. You will do what you really believe in your heart.
You will choose what you believe – whether right or wrong. No one else can make that choice for you. Your actions will reveal what you have chosen to believe. Faithfulness is a choice you make on purpose. You may get slack, but because it is in your heart, you cannot stay slack, you will go back to doing what you believe in.
Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” I desire and strive to be faithful to the right things – things that would please God – things that promote me to be close to the Lord and encourage others to seek the Lord. Below are just a few examples of areas in our life that require faithfulness and each can be greatly expanded on:
My relationship with God
Reading my Bible
Praying
Church attendance
My relationship with my family
To love and honor my spouse
To love, teach, and nurture my children
My relationship with others
My church family
Those in my community - they know who I am, but do not know me closely.
Complete strangers
Shining for the Lord Jesus to all those around in all I do.