Faithful

What a quiet time today! Somehow through my reading in Acts about the stoning of Stephen, I got to the words of Jesus in Revelation 2:10 spoken to the church in Smyrna: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” I’ve already been thinking about what it means to be faithful. I recently wrote about living in the audience of God and how our goal is not to be famous, but to be faithful. So today when I read those words from Jesus, I thought, “The Lord wants me to focus on this word faithful. What does it mean for me to be faithful? What can I learn about being faithful?” So I launched into a study of this word. First, I looked it up in the Greek. The word is pistos and occurs 67 times in the New Testament. When you are faithful, then you are worthy of trust, you can be relied on, you are trustworthy, believing, firm in your faith, and you trust in God’s promises. Then, as I looked up other occurrences of this word in the NT, I learned the following - From Revelation 2:10, I learned that when I am faithful until death, I will receive the crown of life from Jesus, the stephanos (in the Greek). I talk a lot about the stephanos. I can’t wait until I see His face and more than anything I want to hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” and I want to have Him put that stephanos on my head. It will be a great reward in heaven. When we are faithful, we share in the joy of the Lord (Matthew 25:23). I am to be faithful in small things (Luke 16:10-14). I am to be faithful as a steward of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:2).

These verses in 1 Corinthians 4 were very profound for me. Paul talks here about how he is completely unconcerned about what others think and says that he knows the one who examines him is the Lord (1 Corinthians 4:4). Everything will come to light, even our motives, and then our praise will come from God. We live in the audience of God and God alone. Wow! Think about that. I know that, but today I know it better. I kept reading in 1 Corinthians 4 and it was very meaningful for me to see the kind of life Paul experienced - he was a “fool for Christ’s sake”, weak, without honor, hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless, toiled, working with his own hands, reviled, persecuted, endured, slandered, became as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things (1 Corinthians 4:10-13). You know, if Jesus was persecuted and suffered, Paul was persecuted and suffered, the disciples were without honor, how can we expect some other kind of life? Just something to think about. Another verse I got to today - the words of Jesus in Luke 16:15 “…that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.” Another profound thought for me - the world and our culture today esteems certain things - we absolutely must be careful not to allow the world to determine our values, but only the Word of God. I also learned from 3 John 5 that being faithful is an action - we walk in the truth. When we walk in the truth, we are able to be faithful, trusting in the promises of God.

I thought you might enjoy seeing how I actually do a reference study so I included my quiet time notebook pages for my study on “faithful” here as a pdf doc. It’s in my handwriting using a pencil (which is what I love to use in my quiet time) so it might look a bit messy cause I write all over the page - anywhere that I can find space! I love using these Reference Study pages - they’re in the 5th section of my Quiet Time Notebook and I use them whenever I do a topical or reference study - just fyi. Enjoy!!

What a study today. A lot to think about. I can tell that the Lord is doing something deep in me in the area of living with a constant awareness of His presence - living always in the audience of God. I was especially drawn into those 1 Cor. 4 verses and the example of Paul. He was very conscious of living for the Lord alone and kept his eyes on that day when he would step from time into eternity. Also, he had given up the ways of the world and was willing to suffer for Christ’s sake to be faithful all the way to the end of his earthly race. I am thinking a lot about that stephanos - the victory crown. I think we need to keep the stephanos in our sights as we live out our days. Today, I want to be found faithful. Tomorrow, I want to be found faithful. Next week and next year (if the Lord so wills), I want to be found faithful.
Thank You Lord, for your Word today and for showing me that You want me to be faithful. Thank You Lord, for reminding me of the stephanos, the victory crown. Lord, give me the ability to be faithful today and the willingness to serve you even if it means suffering. I want to hear Your words, “Well done, Catherine, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.” Then it will be worth it all. In Jesus’ name, Amen.