Praise God for Being Faithful

A few summers ago my husband and I visited the ruins of Ephesus with some friends. We marveled at the beautiful and colorful mosaic floors being painstakingly restored by workers. We stood within the remains of an amphitheater. We stepped on the worn-down cobbled streets.

Most striking of all, as we walked around the city, were the pillars that remained standing while other parts of the buildings had fallen on disappeared. 

These pillars had supported and held up ceilings and made grand entrances and doorways through which people walked.

They stood as strong and solid against the blue Mediterranean sky as they had done 2,000 years ago.

In the Hebrew language, the word for faithfulness is the same Hebrew word used to describe doorposts and pillars for how they “strengthen,” “support,” and “hold up.”

Pillars give us a visual example of God’s faithfulness.

“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is the faithful God who for a thousand generations keeps his promises and constantly loves those who love him and who obey his commands.”

Deuteronomy 7:9 TLB

God in his faithfulness stands strong and solid from one generation to the next, year after year, day after day. He is a support and strength for his people, including you are me. 

God will hold you up and never let you down.

We can rely on God to be faithful in loving us, keeping his promises to strengthen, care, and protect us.

Sometimes though, it’s hard to wrap our minds around the meaning of God’s faithfulness. It’s a term that can be so familiar to us that it can lose its meaning. 

Or we base our knowledge of faithfulness on experiences with other people, which are not perfect. Friends and family let us down. Partners can be unfaithful. We may not know what true faithfulness is like.

Here are two other examples that help us grasp the extent of God’s day-in, day-out commitment to us.

the sunrise 

Watch the sunrise. It might mean getting up early. It might mean seeing the sun’s rays peak through the shades or curtains when you wake up.

The rising sun is a reminder of God’s constant, unwavering faithfulness.

You and I never go to bed thinking that the night will last forever. We know daylight will come. Clouds might block the sun, but the light of dawn confirms that the earth still spinning and the sun has risen.

It’s the same with darkness in our lives. God’s light will shine through and overcome.

It doesn’t matter if we are good or bad, faithful or unfaithful, a saint or a sinner, God in his faithfulness makes the sun still shines on us.

He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.

Matthew 5:45 MSG

And trust in Jesus means that we need never be without hope. The gospel of John says this about Jesus:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John 1:5 NLT

God’s faithfulness is as reliable as the sun rising each morning.

A new day

We wake up each morning knowing it is the next day. The calendar has changed to a new date. Monday always follows Sunday. The second day of the month always follows the first.

God’s faithful love, compassion, and mercy are like a new day.

Whatever hopelessness we have felt, God in his love can refresh us like waking up the next day after a good night’s sleep.

Whatever mess we’ve made of the day, God’s mercy is the chance to have a new start, as guaranteed as a new day.

No matter how we ignore God, offend him, or rebel against him, tomorrow—or at any point in the day—he always offers us a fresh start.

Just as the sun will rise every morning signaling a new day, so God will forgive and refresh us anew each day, day in, day out, forever and ever.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT

God is an unchanging, constant presence of faithfulness in our lives. God is our strength and support. He is as solid as 2,000-year-old pillars and the rising sun that brings a new day.

Pray