‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6
Like all the other fruits of the
Spirit, our faithfulness proceeds from God’s faithfulness. This is crucial. I can’t sustain my own faithfulness. When I’ve tried, I have always reached the
moment when I decide that I’m done. In
my work as a Pastor, I have on multiple occasions gotten to the point where I
say to myself, “I’ve got to find something else to do with my life.” In each of those cases, I realized that I was
trying to be faithful on my own power.
It may work for a while, but it is not sustainable.
In the above scripture, “by my
Spirit” is the key. To the extent that
we are “present” with the Spirit that God has placed within us, our
faithfulness becomes sustainable. To be
present with the Spirit is to be aware of and connected to the Spirit’s
presence in us. This is what the
Psalmist means when he shares God’s encouragement to “be still and know that I
am God.” (46:10) The most important part
of our day is the time we spend slowing ourselves down enough to pay attention
to the presence of God with us. When
this becomes a habit, we have a growing sense of God’s faithfulness to us. This makes our faithfulness a natural response,
not drudgery.
What has God called you to be
faithful in? If you don’t have an answer
to that question, be assured that what God is calling you to be faithful in is
practicing being aware of God’s presence.
Other areas of obedience grow out of that. If you are aware of even a small thing that
God is calling you to do, do it. As you do it, notice how God shows up in your
doing it. That leads to the next step in
your faithfulness. We’ll talk more about
that tomorrow.
Prayer: God, slow me
down enough that I may notice your presence with me and your faithfulness to
me. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Take
some time to be quiet and still today, asking God to make God’s presence known
to you.
Song: Great is Thy Faithfulness – Chris Rice
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