By Not Known
Joshua sums up the life that God’s people are called to when he urged his
generation to “… fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness… and to…
choose this day whom you will serve” (Jos 24:14-15).
Our service and obedience of God depend on faith. It is because we trust God
that we choose to commit to him and bring him our fear, service and obedience.
This is easily illustrated from everyday life. Our commitment to another person in
friendship or other relationships depends on how much we trust them. If we don’t
trust someone, we rightfully hold back from telling them all our secrets and
putting our business affairs or life into their hands.
So, our faithfulness to God depends on our faith in God.
What makes us put our faith in God? Christian faith is not an irrational or
desperate leap in the dark. It certainly involves a hopeful projection into the
unknown future (Heb 11 :1). But faith is a forward trust based on a strong
persuasion of God’s faithfulness.
So, our faith in God rest on a persuasion of his faithfulness.
We can also see this in Joshua. Before Joshua called Israel to choose and serve
God he reminded them of God’s deeds (Jos 24:1-13). As he summarised it:… not
one of the good promises that the Lord gave you has failed (Jos 23:14).
God’s keeping of his promises is the evidence of his faithfulness and that, in turn
motivates our faith in him and our faithfulness to him.
This is all reinforced under the new covenant as we look back on even more
evidence of God’s faithfulness. As Paul reminds us:No matter how many
promises God has mode, they are ‘yes’ in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). Jesus is the
greatest evidence of God’s faithfulness.
When our faith is weak we should look at Jesus. We are to consider him:…
that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Heb 12:3).
So, let us look at Jesus and move from God’s faithfulness to our faith and from
our faith to our faithfulness.