Resting In The Faithfulness Of God

Everyone, at some time in their life, will have feelings of frustration.  This is especially true when you have prayed and asked God to meet some need and that prayer goes unanswered.  Some times when that happens there are people who give up and claim God is not who He says He is.  This happens because we tend to judge our situations based on how we feel and as a result we question God's faithfulness.  To show God's absolute reliability and faithfulness I want to share with you four truths about God and His faithfulness.

1.  The Attributes Of God

God has many attributes that we could discuss but there five that speak directly to His faithfulness to humanity.

• Omniscient -- To be omniscient means to be "all knowing."  God can be faithful because He knows everything!  Everything in the past, present, and future.  He knows our needs, wants, and desire as well as our weaknesses and frailties.  Speaking to His disciples and others, Jesus said that "...your Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8b). 
• Omnipotent -- This simply means God is "all powerful."  Because God is omnipotent He can accomplish anything He needs to accomplish to help us work through our circumstances
  
  and provide for us what is needed.
• Omnipresent -- God is everywhere and available at all times.  We will never find ourselves in a situation where He's not present and able to come to our aid when we cry out to Him in prayer. 
• Truthful -- God's character of truthfulness is essential to His faithfulness.  Titus 1:2 tells us that God will never lie or misguide us.  He also cannot deny Himself and will always remain true to His own nature.
• Immutable -- God never changes.  His character is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If God changed who He was, then everything would be uncertain. This immutable attribute of God should be a great source of assurance for believers.

2.  God Makes Two Kinds Of Promises

• Unconditional -- Many of the promises of God are unconditional and nothing we can do will change them.  Examples would be the rainbow as a symbol of God's promise to never destroy the earth again with a flood; another is God's promise is that the dead in Christ will rise and we which are alive will be caught up with them.  And there are many others.
• Conditional -- Conditional promises of God depend upon the choices we make.  An example would be "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (condition) and all these other things will be added to you" (promise) Matthew 6:33.

3. Promises We Can Rely On

Below is a list of just a few of wonderful promises of God that speak to His faithfulness that we can rest in.

• His compassion never fails (Lamentations 3:22-23)
• He is faithful to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 7:9)
• He will hasten His Word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12)
• He will keep us from evil (2 Thessalonians 3:3)
• Rescue the godly from temptation (2 Peter 2:9)
• He will empower us to do whatever He has called us to accomplish (Philippians 4:13)
• If we confess our sins, He's faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9)
• God will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13)
• God will meet our needs (Philippians 4:19)
• All things work together for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28)
• All who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life (John 3:36)

4.  God Is Also Faithful To The Unbeliever

Those who only pretend to be Christians or who deny the truth of Jesus Christ are also promised punishment because of their unbelief or their false witness (Matthew 7:13; Revelation 20:11-15). God loves us unconditionally, but He is a God of truthfulness.  He keeps His promises as well as His warnings.

We aren't promised trial free lives when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, but we have a faithful God who will always help us through our difficulties.  Our Father will never fail to keep His promises, and this is why we can be strong and confident in Him.

What are you facing today that you need to give over to Him so that you can begin to "rest in the faithfulness of God?"

-- Pastor Temple