Faithfulness

  I just wrote a letter, sealed it an envelope, addressed it and put a stamp on it, all without a second thought as to whether or not it will reach its intended destination.  I am not filled with anxiety about the journey it will make to a distant city, concerned about whether it will ever reach its recipient, even though it is a request for reimbursement.  If it fails to arrive, it will be a hassle to dig up the old receipts and re-submit the request.  But I'm not concerned.

  Why not?

  Because I have used the Post Office in the past, and they have proved reliable.  Their past reliability leads me to trust them in the present.

  We don't trust institutions and people who fail us time and time again.  Eventually, we learn to stop trusting them.

  When we study the Bible, we learn of God's faithfulness over the years.  We read stories about God's faithfulness, about his reliability, and we learn to rely upon God in the present and the future.  We learn about how God does not fail to keep his promises, and in so doing we know that we can trust God in the present and the future.  If God did not have a track record of faithfulness, perhaps then we could claim suspicion.  However, God always keeps his promises and God never abandons us.  None of this means that we'll fully understand everything that God does, and it doesn't mean that we can never question God--it simply means that somehow, someway, God is always at work, remaining faithful, loving us and abiding with us in the joys and sorrows of life.

  I trust God because he has never abandoned me.  Just as God was faithful to Daniel in the lions' den, to the Israelites in the wilderness, to the first disciples under persecution, God will be faithful to me, to each of us, because he is reliable.

  Thanks be to God.