Celebrating the Faithfulness of God

Scripture — 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

Devotion

Christians rightly emphasize faith as essential to our relationship with God. By faith, we receive God’s saving grace. By faith, we know God. It’s important to remember that faith in God is more than believing the right things about God, though this is important, of course. Faith is putting our trust in God. It’s putting our souls and our lives in God’s hands. So, when we accept the good news of God’s salvation by grace in Christ, we aren’t just affirming that this is true. We are also putting our trust in God to save us, to give us new life and new meaning as we live for God and God’s purposes.

One main reason we put our faith in God is that God is faithful. The Greek word for faith is pistis. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says that “The one who calls you is faithful [pistos].” In Greek as well as English, faith and faithfulness are intertwined. We trust God because God is utterly trustworthy.

I’m reminded of the first time I went rock climbing. I am rather skittish about heights, so I was not terribly excited about the idea of climbing up some sheer rock face, whether I was roped in or not. But I was willing to risk my life because my friend Eric was in charge of belaying. He found a secure place on the top of the cliff to attach the rope. He showed me how the equipment worked and why it could be trusted. But, most importantly, Eric was on the ground, holding the rope attached to my harness. If I lost my grip, which did happen several times, Eric made sure I didn’t fall.

Similarly, God is trustworthy, ultimately trustworthy. In fact, according to 1 Thessalonians 5:24, God can be trusted to sanctify us entirely, and to make sure our whole selves – spirit and soul and body – are kept sound and blameless when Christ comes again. The time will come when we are set free from the chains of sin, healed of all that is broken in us, and transformed to be more fully like Jesus Christ.

My friends, this is great news. It means that no matter how much we’re struggling to live as God intends, and no matter how much we feel the limitations of our brokenness and sinfulness, the time will come when God will set us free from the power of sin and heal us completely. We will finally be the whole people God wants us to be.

This might seem like wishful thinking. And it would be, except for the fact that God is faithful. God can be trusted to complete the work God began in us. As it says in Philippians 1:6, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Here’s an Experiment: Frame Your Day With God’s Love and Faithfulness.

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