Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Faithfulness and Grace

As you can imagine, there is a lot of time to think while recovering from a life threatening illness. In my case, there hasn't been a lot of time spent on "why me" or "why now". I believe that's because of our faith in God and the support of family and friends who remind us quite often that God is walking by our side during this illness. Many of you who read this blog are among those who boost our spirits by these kinds of reminders. I've spent some of my time thinking about your faith and the example that each of you are to us. Your encouraging comments have been a demonstration of your faith to us and a reminder that God is faithful.

As I began to think about what it means when God is "faithful" I realized that it is very easy to misinterpret the word. It is easy to relate God being faithful with Him solving the problems at hand and making everything all better. But nothing could be further from the truth. When God is faithful to us He is fulfilling the promises that He has made to us.

"...The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down." Psalms 145:13-14

It is important to remember that not one of the promises God has made has ever failed. He has always been faithful and will be faithful forever. What is easy to forget is that He has never promised to make our lives easy. On the contrary, Jesus warned us that "...In this world you will have trouble." John 16:33. But He followed that up by reassuring us that He has overcome the world. In other words, we will all have trouble in our lives but God will be with us to walk by our sides through it.

I think that it is easy to confuse faithfulness with the grace of God. God is faithful when He fulfills His promises but He chooses when to give grace. For example, He chose to give grace by giving eternal life, to those who believe, through the death of His son, Jesus Christ. He didn't have to do this therefore, He wasn't being faithful to us. However, now that He has promised eternal life He will be faithful to us by granting eternal life to those who believe in Christ.

To bring this full circle, if you consider that each of us is expected to be a reflection of Christ, then each of us should be faithful to our promises and show grace to those around us. In our case, we have been the recipients of your faithfulness and grace in countless ways. So many of you have been faithful to "uphold us during our fall" through prayer and have shown your grace through encouragement and financial gifts. You have all been such a testimony to us and have taught us so much. But more important than us, your words of encouragement have been seen by more people than you can imagine and have had an effect on the lives of many, thus, God is being glorified through your faithfulness and grace. Glorifying God through this challenge in our lives is our one and only goal. Thank you again for being faithful and gracious in the name of God.

Russ and Robyn

3 comments:

Luke L. said...

You guys truly amaze each and every time I listen to you both or read what you have to say... Maybe some day I can be this faithful and wise! (HAHAHA) Dad or you officially old enough to be WISE now? Love you... Can't wait to see your results!

Anonymous said...

Morning friend! You are an amazing writer.. thanks for sharing your heart and the road you are walking...praying for you continually... love you!

Unknown said...

Someone once wrote, "storms do not shipwreck the gospel, they only propel it forward." That happens when God's people respond in faith to those storms (Hab 2:4). Thank you for your faithful response to this challenge; you are truly propelling the gospel forward.