“Most Faithful”

"Most Faithful"

   

    Suppose the Lord came to us one day and identified the most faithful believer on the planet.  Furthermore, He told us to inform the person of His evaluation.  How would he or she respond?

    "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (I Timothy 1:15).

    "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).

    Our faithful brother or sister would instantly question whether we rightly heard the Lord.  His immediate response would be bewilderment, and then the confession of how undeservedly good God has been to him.  He would change the discussion, raising the matter of the Savior's faithfulness and keeping the focus thereupon.  In our minds, this would confirm that we heard the Lord rightly, and our visit with the most faithful believer would result in joyful remembrance of the Source of all trustworthiness and consistency.

    "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2).

    A faithful moon revolves around the earth, shining light in darkness and affecting tides and winds.  It did not make itself or the laws that govern its capacities to influence the earth.  Most vividly, it bears no light of its own, but rather absorbs and reflects the rays of the sun.  The faithful Christian lives in the same reality of dependence, but with the consciousness to realize the truth of our Lord's pronouncement to His disciples: "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  Godly believers don't feel godly because they focus on the faithfulness of Another rather than their own.  Such a gaze upward, outward, and away results in growing absorption and reflection of Christ's character, nature and way.  The left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is doing because it gazes upon God's hand, and even more, upon His heart (Matthew 6:3; Psalm 89:13). "Faithful?" our brother or sister would say in response to our report of their Lord's evaluation.  "Oh yes, He is!"  Or as a beloved seminary professor once responded when asked at his retirement ceremony how he would like to be remembered.  "As a man," he said, "who had a glorious, faithful, and patient Lord."  If the moon were conscious, this would be its testimony.  We can be sure it is the testimony of that most faithful believer enthralled by a most faithful Christ.

"Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

(II Corinthians 3:18)

Weekly Memory Verse

     I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

(Psalm 116:9)