Heartfelt Faithfulness

Have you ever considered the significance of the word faithfulness? It’s definitely one of the key foundations to receiving God’s grace (Revelations 2:10, Matthew 24:13). It’s almost exclusively religious in our culture; used most often relating to worship or marriage. But what if God had a deeper meaning behind the concept of faithfulness?

In the Hebrew culture, it is customary to recite the Shema, or a special prayer of commitment. It comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, and Jesus used it to summarize the entire law and the prophets in Matthew 22:37-39. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Basically, we should long for God and have a deep desire for his closeness. But, like most cultures, we want these three words (heart, soul, mind) to signify totally different parts of our existence. While there is some significance that God would state three words that are used interchangeably throughout the Bible to refer to people, it can end up causing confusion if we try to make these three words only vaguely related.

Of these words, probably soul receives the most mystical explanation. In the English and Greek (and other places), the word soul refers to the immortal part of us to be released at death. But in the Hebrew, the word Nephesh (Soul) really means the throat, kind of referring to life; or the total person.

When the Israelites complained about not having the kinds of food they used to have in Egypt, they used that word, “but now our whole being (soul) is dried up” (Numbers 11:6). Probably more well-known would be Psalms 42, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul (life) for You…”

Faithfulness was never intended to describe an obligation, but instead its meant to describe our desire to want to stay committed, an understanding of what this relationship means to us which equates a longing to have it. This is why Abram was considered “righteous” (Genesis 15:6), because his life was thirsty for what God wanted to share with him. After all, he was willing to wait 25 years for a promised son, then he was willing to sacrifice him – all for this relationship with God, a promised blessing from the Creator.

The more we view faithfulness as a condition of our heart, rather than a successful accomplishment of certain actions, the more we begin to see why faithfulness is such a huge criteria for God welcoming us into His home. He wants us to want to be there, and our persistence, eagerness, and loyalty to Him shows it.

In part, the Good News, has shown us how to love - God’s way, which is perfect and good. Or as John says in 1 John 4:9-11, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”