God's Heart is Faithful

Do you think it is possible to be perfectly faithful in our relationships?

This is a loaded question. It is something that if we are really honest is a difficult one. It makes us ask the question what does it mean to be faithful in a relationship.

Faithfulness is defined as. Steadfast in affection or allegiance. or Firm adherence to promises.

Is that possible to maintain and to hold up to in relationships?

It is easy for us to go to place of negative thoughts and to look at failures in relationships at the norm for us.

Why do we look to the negative relationships more than the positive?

Have you ever thought about it. How many of us have positive relationships in our life?

How many of us have negative ones?

Which do you let influence you more in life? The positive or the negative?

The negative relationships speak to us and hold us hostage for far longer then we should allow them. We let them bring us down and pull us to a place that we shouldn’t be. We also let this be blinded to the positive relationships that we have.

I look at the relationship that Moses had with God. Moses had a bad relationship with the people of Israel. There were constant struggles with faithfulness between the people and God. Moses was stuck in the middle of this relationship often.

Moses faced multiple times the struggles of leading people. He faced the challenges of people turning from God yet he knew that God’s promises were there.

Exodus 33:14–17 NIV

14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

God makes a promise to Moses and his people. It is a reminder that God is there and he is faithful to his promises. It is a reminder that God’s presence will go with us and be with us if we ask him to do it.

Let me ask this question

When God makes a promise how do we know God’s not going to change his mind?

Have you ever worried about that. Have you ever wondered if it could happen. Some people would tell you that they think God does change his mind because they see punishment for the Israelites or others and think that is not God fulfilling a promise.

Is God’s Discipline a faithfulness to his promise?

This is hard for us to separate sometimes as humans. We can trust that God keeps his word.

Numbers 23:19 NIV

19 God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

I love the first line of that passage. God is not human. It is a good reminder that he does not follow the same rules that we have for each other.

It makes me ask the question

How can defining God as if he were a sinful human lead us to misunderstanding God?

One of the big challenges that we have to be constantly reminded that God is not us. God is different

Let’s switch gears on this topic.

Sometimes we questions God’s faithfulness because it seems he’s slow to keep his promises. or worse we might think he decided not to keep his promises. However, it is important to remember that there is a difference between God being slow and being patient.

What is the difference between God being slow and being patient?

Why is it good that God is patient with us?

2 Peter 3:8–9 NIV

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

WE can not forget that God is patient with us. He full fills his promises in us.

When has God been patient with you? How so?

What does it mean for us to seek God’s Presence today?

2 Corinthians 3:7–9 NIV

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!

What Changes about our outlook when we remember that God is always with us?