Constant and Unchanging—The Faithfulness of God

Each day this month I will be answering one question from these December Journal Prompts.

Day 17: How has God been faithful to you this year?

There are a lot of ways I could answer this question.

I could talk about how God has richly blessed us with a healthy baby girl, or how He provided for us financially this year while I was on maternity leave. I could talk about how He has walked with Ryan and I through the new challenges of parenthood, or how He faithfully used others to fill in the gaps at FBC KIDS in my absence. I could talk about our warm, comfortable home, our trusty, reliable vehicle, our excellent health, or our amazing church family who has never let us down when we have a need of any kind.

And everything on that list would make a satisfactory response. Each one, in its own way, represents God’s faithfulness to me this year. But they don’t tell the whole story. They are just small puzzle pieces in a much bigger design.

You see, I don’t believe that God’s faithfulness should be singularly reduced to the circumstantial blessings in my daily life. Because if it were, what would it mean if all these blessings were removed from my life? Would God suddenly cease to be faithful? No. God’s faithfulness is constant and unchanging. And even if I had nothing… God would still be faithful.

Because God’s faithfulness isn’t about me. It isn’t about what I have or don’t have. It isn’t about whether I am healthy or sick, whether my baby sleeps through the night or not, or how much money I have in the bank. God’s faithfulness transcends all of this. On the good days, and on the bad days, God is faithful.

Psalm 36:5 says, “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies” (NIV). This verse isn’t talking about precise measurements. It’s not as if you could calculate the distance from here to the heavens, and once it had stretched that far, God’s love would run out.

No, this is figurative language that paints a picture of the immeasurable love and faithfulness of God. It’s the kind of faithfulness that God displays towards me on my worst days—on the days when I screw up, when I choose selfishness over service, obstinacy over obedience, and loathing over love. It’s this kind of faithfulness that compels the God and King of the universe—the supreme creator who holds limitless power in his hands—to keep on loving a broken, messed up troublemaker like me, despite the offenses I’ve committed against Him.

So I would say THAT is how God has been faithful to me this year.

That He remained devoted to me, in spite of me.

That He didn’t give up on me when I was ready to give up on myself.

That He didn’t hold my past sins against me, but He looked at me as a new creation.

That He loved me through my mess…

And that He always will.