Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the skies.

Psalm 36:5 (NIV)

• lasting loyalty, trustworthiness, and steadfastness in relationships, especially marriage and friendship
• the fact or quality of being true to one’s word, pledge, or commitments to another

loyal. dedicated. committed. dependable. reliable. consistent. steadfast. trustworthy.

In Hebrew, the word is emun/emunah and requires relationship. God’s character is one of faithfulness demonstrated through his persistent love and provision for his people. Scripture is filled with examples and testimonies of his faithfulness.

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness
Exodus 34:6

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Psalm 86:15

Because he is faithful he calls us—his image bearers—to also be faithful. But what does that mean? What does faithfulness look like, act like, live like? How do we cultivate a heart of faithfulness?

To be transparent, I’m struggling with the idea. Being faithful when things become hard, when people are messy, when I’ve grown weary, or bored, or disappointed, or fed up, or preoccupied.

Even this blog series on cultivating hearts suggests unfaithfulness due to distraction. A valid one, I’d like to think, as I find it hard to be present with visiting family and also find time to write. But still. I had planned, hoped to weekly release the blogs in this series. And this week I am behind. Does that mean I’ve been unfaithful?

Maybe faithfulness also measures the cost when deciding between two commitments and calls for wisdom as to on which to place the greater value. After all, we have limited time, energy, and resources.

Maybe faithfulness means coming back around to who and what we’ve committed to. Picking up where we left off. Not giving up even when we’ve stumbled, failed, or faltered.

Maybe faithfulness means having patience and grace for ourselves and for others. Requiring endurance, perseverance, determination.

Maybe faithfulness means showing up again. And again. And again.

This week take a look at how you spend your time, energy, and resources? To what have you been most faithful? Ask yourself, is this where I want to be most faithful? Ask Jesus, is this where you want me to be faithful? If not, to what do I want to be faithful? Ask Jesus, where do you want me to be faithful? Then consider, how can I be more faithful in this area? In this way, you can begin cultivating a heart of faithfulness.

grace and peace