unfaithfulness Archives | Moment to Moment

Because he’s faithful

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful; he will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

Those last words really struck me today.

He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.

It reminded me of two other passages.

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me.
LORD, your faithful love endures forever… (Psalm 138:8)

And,

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

I look at my life, and I’m nowhere near as faithful as I should be.

And yet, God doesn’t give up on me.

He will fulfill his purpose for me.

That’s what gives me hope, despite my struggles, despite my failures, to keep pressing on to know my Lord and to be like him.

It’s not so much my faithfulness to him that drives me. It’s his faithfulness to me.

The God who remains faithful though we are not

In this passage, we see yet another evil king in the history of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam II.

His life is very unique among the kings listed in that God helped him despite the fact that he was an evil king.

As far as we can see, there is no sign that Jeroboam ever sought God. Yet from a worldly point of view, he was very successful.

He reigned for forty-one years, which was the longest reign of any king in the northern kingdom’s history. He also restored the boundaries of Israel during his time.

But the Bible makes clear that this was in spite of Jeroboam’s unfaithfulness to God. It says,

The Lord had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them.

And since the Lord had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash. (2 Kings 14:26–27)

In other words, God is faithful to his word, even when we are unfaithful to him.

That said, we need to understand that just because things are going well in our lives doesn’t mean our lives are right with God.

Jeroboam was blessed in spite of himself.

But you can be sure that when he faced God after his death, there was no blessing for him—only judgment.

And so even when we are blessed, we need to search our hearts and ask, “Is God blessing us because we are following after him? Or is he blessing us in spite of ourselves?”

On the other hand, when we are feeling down because of our sin and we’re feeling like God could never use us or forgive us, we need to remember that God is faithful.

He will forgive us and restore us if we repent.

Though we are unfaithful, he remains faithful to us. (1 John 1:9)

As Paul wrote,

If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)