A Faithful Saying

Faithful means loyal and loyal means steadfast allegiance.  If you promise something, are you faithful to keep your word?  Sometimes we forget what we have promised until someone reminds us.  Here's one for you: Are you on time for appointments, are you on time meeting a friend or business associate?  Do you think it doesn't matter if you are a few minutes late?  I know someone that can be an hour late and think nothing of it.

I am not sure what people are thinking when they are not faithful to appointments or faithful  to their word.  Is it because in their mind other people's time isn't important or what do you think it might be?  I really am not sure as I love to be early for mine, I would rather wait than have someone wait on me, but this study isn't about me, it is for me.  There is something I need in this particular study, so let's see what it is.

2 Timothy 2:11-13  "This is a faithful saying:  For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him: If we endure, We shall also reign with Him:  If we deny Him, He also will deny us:  If we are faithless, He remains faithful: He cannot deny Himself."

In other words, God is faithful even if we are not.  When it says if we died with Him, it means that if we have died to our self and our wishes.  If we endure, we shall also be with Him forever; it is not easy to endure unless we have Him right there beside us; if we deny Him , he will deny us; we don't want that to happen do we?  We want to be sure that we don't deny Him in our actions, our speech, and we can also deny Him by the look on our countenance.  In other words He wants us to copy His faithfulness.

What is your picture of God?  I had a mean, jealous stepfather and I didn't realize it but as I grew older, I pictured God that way and it was only about ten years ago that I realized that I was doing that.  It is normal for a child to look up to their father as he must represent God to them and so children grow up picturing God like their father was.  Sometimes it is a great thing with the right kind of father but with me, the first father I knew was an alcoholic and the second one was mean and jealous.  The first one tried to kill my mother and I heard her screaming in the night and ran to see what was wrong and it saved her life.  So what kind of picture of God do you think I formed with this kind of example?  Not a good one to be sure.

I saw God as glowering at me and waiting to get me for something I did wrong.  What a picture for a person to have of a loving, forgiving and faithful God.  He is our Father you know, so we need to forget about all the stuff we have pictured Him as and remember His faithful sayings, because He is faithful in all that He does for us and will always be faithful, so if you have had a distorted picture of God, see Him as smiling at you with a very loving, forgiving countenance and begging you to be like Him and welcoming you home someday.  It is our reward for believing in His faithfulness, can it get any better than that?  Grandma Joan