Faithfulness In All Our Ways….

Morning!

Raises his cup of coffee

It is Tuesday April 1st of 2025.  A cool, breezy and sunny day is forecast with a high of about 60.

Psalm 119: 73-80

“Your Hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.  Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Your Word.  I know, O LORD, that Your judgements are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.  Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Your Word to Your servant.  Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your Law is my delight.  Let the proud be ashamed, for they treated me wrongfully with falsehood; but I will meditate on Your precepts.  Let those who fear You turn to me, those who know Your testimonies.  Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes, that I may not be ashamed.”

The hands of God have fashioned us.  Every single human being who has ever existed has been known by God in this way.  The incredible power and gentleness of God—hands strong enough to hold a black hole, yet tender enough to weave us together in our mothers’ wombs.  He is the God who sees, and the God who knows.   He is the raiser of kings and the Judge of the wicked.  He is the One who gives to every man according to his works.  He is Justice.  And He is Righteous.

Proverbs 1: 7

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

David asks for understanding that he may learn the commandments of God, he is asking for knowledge of God.  Which reminds me of our challenge from last week.

2 Peter: 1-11

“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.  But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.  For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.  Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

So, we chose a virtue to work on—mine was long-suffering—and with that, we began our week with a little spiritual work.  We have started to become doers of the work, not just hearers of the Word.  We are moving from waiting for the Lord… to waiting upon the Lord.

In our passage today, David is crying out for understanding.  He is asking the big question ‘Why’.

So, we’ve been working this week on adding to our faith virtue.  We’ve chosen the virtue we want to add.  We’ve sought God’s Word and spoken to Him in prayer about the work we’re doing.  We’ve reminded ourselves to track our progress in our chronicling journals.  Now comes the work.  I’d say I’m currently somewhere between self-control and perseverance in Peter’s teaching.  But it occurred to me— I’m not moving as fast as I want to in my learning.  Do we ever think like that?

I have to remind myself sometimes that the knowledge part—the part where we seek God’s Word and His understanding—is only the beginning of the process.  Once we’ve gone through the work of adding virtue to our faith, the next step is self-control.  That’s the part where we take what we’re learning and work it into our lives.  We let the Word of God do its perfect work— changing what we do, changing what we think, how we think, and how we live.  But even that is not the end of the process.  Perseverance is next.

Perseverance: (noun)

- Continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition; the action or condition or an instance of persevering: steadfastness

Faithfulness.  What does God require of all the steps of our process?  Time.

James 1: 2-8

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

We count it all joy when we go through a trial— because we know that God is with us.  He doesn’t leave us to walk through hardship alone. He walks through it with us.  God is Sovereign.  If a trial has entered our lives, it is because God has allowed it.  And in that trial, we hold onto the promise that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  As David puts it in our text today—

we find it good that we have been afflicted, because affliction gives us understanding.

Now trials don’t have to be big.  Let’s not forget Jesus says…

Luke 16: 10

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.”

Trials are a testing of our faith.  They are a chance to refine and grow into our relationship with God—an opportunity to draw even closer to Him.  I’ve done some research this week on trials and suffering, and what I’ve found is that there’s an abundance of teaching that focuses on trials that are deadly serious.  I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve come across—stories of miscarriages, time spent locked in jail cells, cancer diagnoses, chronic sickness.  And these are, without question, deeply difficult trials for anyone to go through.  But I find it hard to believe that God only uses those kinds of situations.

What about our everyday trials?  Have we begun to experience them with Jesus yet?

As some of you know, I love my cat.  Katie is a funny cat.  When she’s at home with me and my wife, she’s talkative and loving. But when my wife is away on travel—she transforms into a terror.  All of a sudden, she becomes a food-begging monster.  At first, I was genuinely worried. I thought maybe I was forgetting to feed her, or maybe she wasn’t getting enough food—or worse, maybe something was wrong.  But no.  It turns out… she’s just begging for more food.  She doesn’t need it.  She doesn’t even want it when I give it to her.  She just keeps meowing and meowing and interrupting— and she won’t stop…  until I give her a little something more.

It is maddening!

And makes me think of this…

1 Peter 2: 1-3

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

The word used for malice in our text is…

Kakia: (Greek)

- Badness

- Depravity

- malignity

- Trouble

- Malice

- Naughtiness

- Wickedness

In English…

Malice: (Noun)

- Desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another

- Intent to commit an unlawful act or cause harm without legal justification or excuse

Now, I may not want to cause harm to my cat… but I certainly complain when the cat is complaining to me.  Which gets me thinking about Jesus.  And it makes me wonder: Am I begging Him for food—for His Word—the way my cat begs me for food?  Am I turning up my nose at what He serves me?  Am I behaving like a spoiled cat who gets what she wants just because she wants it?  Or am I acting like a servant and a friend— someone who spends their life with Jesus…

And just like that Jesus takes a small, insignificant trial and turns it into an epic moment simply because He is involved.

The long-suffering owner of a cat.  Any of us who have ever had a cat knows exactly what I’m talking about.  But the point is— the Theory of the Epic Mundane strikes again.  If we take these small moments—the ones Jesus shares with us—and we continue working on adding virtue to our faith in the small things…  If we prove ourselves faithful in the small things with Him— He will most certainly be with us through the larger things.  And we will be the more prepared for it.

Proverbs 3: 1-10

“My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.  Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil.  It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.  Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.”

He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him,

for we trust in Him.  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  We are to lean into the understanding that we find through Scripture.  If we turn over all our ways— the big moments where we are battling disease, the big moments where our hearts are breaking, and the little moments of feeding the cat— then we are beginning to acknowledge Him in all our ways.  And God will direct our paths.  Our righteousness—our departing from evil—will guide our steps.

I might also add— I don’t limit the first fruits of my increase to the physical.  Every time I’m blessed with a faith moment, every time the Holy Spirit reveals Himself, I try to offer my spiritual first fruits to Jesus as well.  Because, if you think about it…. those are kind of the more important fruits.

So.

Do we have our chronicling pens ready?

Are we ready for the trials of the day?  They may not be life shattering trials, but they can still be epic if we do them with Jesus.

Have we prayed for all men and for those in authority?

Have we made our prayers and sacrifices for our families this morning like Job?

And I’ll leave you with this Scripture today…

Job 39: 9-12

“Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by they crib?  Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow?  Or will he harrow the valleys after thee?  Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great?  Or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?  Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy sed, and gather it into thy barn?”

I think that’s a good place to start for the day.