Faithfulness — The Loyalty of God
Authored by Smitha Basil George under the complete direction and guidance of God, the Holy Spirit, dated October 20, 2023.
Birds and Lilies
Scriptures for this section [1]:
- Exodus 16
- Deuteronomy 29: 5–6
- Matthew 6: 25–31
- Galatians 5: 22
Faithfulness is the quality of a person, in being committed to fulfill one’s promises, being loyal to a person or a cause, and being steadfast and reliable in the matters entrusted to oneself. As explained in the opening article ‘Rest Complete’, the ultimate example of faithfulness is God Himself, who proved His faithfulness to human beings by giving His own life as a price for atoning for their sins. For those who are born again by trusting upon Jesus Christ’s redemption would be blessed by the indwelling of God in themselves as the Holy Spirit, to guide them in the way of Christ. Faithfulness is hence one of the facets of the fruit of the Holy Spirit manifested in the lives of those who are obedient to Him (Galatians 5:22).
In ‘Rest Complete’, we walked through the events of Israelites’ exodus from Egyptian slavery, their escape from the Egyptian army through the Red Sea and the constant provision for food and clothing that God ensured for them for 40 years in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 29: 5–6). In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus re-emphasizes that God the Father remains the same for us even now, when He exhorted the listeners not to worry about what to eat, drink or wear (Matthew 6: 25–31). His question, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” conveys the significance of perceiving things according to their value. Birds of the air rely on the Father in heaven to obtain their daily food. Lilies of the field are arrayed in glory by God, even though they are going to be there for only a day, even more than what Solomon in his glory could array himself. How much more valuable are we than the birds and the lilies, and how much more will our Father feed and clothe us when we trust, depend on and honor Him! Jesus, therefore instructs us to seek His Kingdom and righteousness first, and everything that we need for our lives that He created and placed here on earth, will be added unto us by Him. Our lives are created for His Kingdom, and not for the current fallen earthly system, and we are not to drain our precious lives being worried and anxious over the matters pertaining to the current system.
Before, During, and After — Walking on Water
Scriptures for this section [1]:
- Matthew 14
- Romans 5: 8
- 1 John 4: 19
God’s faithfulness is an inherent part of His nature. He does not change based on the circumstances, or the faithlessness of those receiving His promises. His faithfulness is closely tied to the other facets of His nature including His loving kindness, tender mercies and graciousness. Human beings in their fallen nature don’t have the right to expect anything from God. We love Him only because He first loved us, and opened a way for us to be reconciled back to Him by His death on the cross and resurrection, while we were still unaware of this fact (1 John 4: 19, Romans 5: 8). While the Word of God is replete with occurrences of people trusting in God getting their healing, deliverance, provision and help in time of need from Him, we will look into a different incident in the Holy Bible, where someone ventured to do something no one had ever tried before, trusting on God’s faithfulness to save him through it.
Apostle Matthew in chapter 14 describes the incidents of the beheading of John the Baptist, the grief of Jesus on hearing that, Jesus trying to withdraw to a deserted place to be alone, the crowd following Him, and He eventually having to feed more than 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. After all these happenings, is the narration of Apostle Peter walking on water.
Even when water is a liquid with very high surface tension, that it can float some higher density objects like a needle, when carefully placed in such a way that it doesn’t disrupt the surface cohesive force, it still doesn’t have enough tension to hold a man up. The exception is the water in the Dead Sea, where its very high salt content makes it much denser than regular sea water. However, the water that Peter walked on was that of the Sea of Galilee, where sinking was a 100% possibility.
Jesus, after a hard day of grief due to the passing of His cousin, and of ministering extra-ordinarily to a very large crowd, needed His quiet time with God, the Father. So He sent His disciples ahead of Him to the land of Gennesaret, crossing over the Sea of Galilee in a boat. He dismissed the crowd that they were ministering to earlier, and then took His time of prayer until the fourth watch of night (3–6 AM). Through the night, the disciples were having a very difficult time rowing the boat because they were facing a bad storm in the sea. Jesus then went to them walking on water. He being the creator of water could make it to have enough surface tension or a similar force to hold Him underneath His feet. This went against human logic, which was based on the laws of nature that humans understood till then. According to human logic, the disciples thought that the one walking on the water could be a spirit without a body, and that’s why the person was not sinking. They, who were already drained due to their fight against the storm, became terrified of this possibility and cried out in fear. They were about to understand that the One who set the laws of nature in place is able to work beyond or around it as needed, for the benefit of those who need deliverance from troubles.
When Jesus spoke to them that it was Him, and they didn’t have to be afraid, but they could be cheerful that He was then there with them, Peter took it to a deeper level, both literally and spiritually. His response — “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” — highlights the below facts:
- He knew that a regular ghostly spirit cannot command water to hold a man with a body.
- He knew that if it was Jesus, He indeed could command the water to hold Peter too, because he was seeing the water holding the very same Jesus having a human body, with his very own eyes. Even if he might not have fully understood the fact logically, he had to believe his eyes.
- He knew that if it was Jesus, He loved him enough to make Peter partake in His power and character, and would even make the water (His other creations) provide the needed support. To put it in another way, Peter trusted Jesus’ faithfulness to support him even at the face of a very present and troublesome impossibility.
It is one thing to have the knowledge of all these in one’s mind, but it takes deep trust in the knowledge to act upon that. Jesus’ response to Peter was to come to Him on the water. Jesus knew beforehand that Peter’s focus would eventually shift from Him to the terrible circumstances and to himself in the middle of those circumstances. That did not prevent Jesus from inviting Peter to do it anyway, because He knew that even the trust and courage being shown to act upon his knowledge of Jesus was to be encouraged and supported. When God made Israelites walk on dry ground by parting the waters of the Red Sea before them, it was a great display of God’s power above the laws of nature, but it didn’t require the Israelites to be partners in that power. They still walked on the dry ground. The calling that Peter received was to walk over his circumstances, and not on a pathway made through the circumstances, partnering with and partaking in the power provided by Jesus.
When he acted on his trust, and stepped onto the water, it indeed held him like how it was holding Jesus and he walked towards Jesus on water. When Jesus is watching over us, and when our gaze is fixated on Him, trusting in His power to hold the water underneath our feet, we will not sink, no matter how overpowering the circumstances seem. Just like how Peter had no chance against the sea underneath him, and the wind and the waves which were lashing against him, we also, in many cases, might not stand a chance against what comes against us. However, we know the one who made the whole universe, and who set everything in its place, who has power and control over everything according to His Sovereignty. When our gaze is fixated on Him, we can partner with Him in His power, which will enable us to walk over the seemingly impossible and overpowering circumstances, while being completely protected.
Peter sank only when his focus shifted from Jesus back to what he was dealing with before, plus the sea underneath him now. This calls to bring forth another significant truth. When we step out in faith from what we knew or had before (our rocking boat which anyways was being overpowered by the storm), to get ourselves closer to Jesus, who is standing above a sea, untouched by a terrible storm, we should be willing to just look at Jesus, and not on anything else or on ourselves. If not, we would not only be dealing with our previous circumstances, but also with a sea underneath our feet, which has 100% odds against us, when we are by ourselves. During the walk, the storm could still rage, and we have another big enemy to pull us down which we had not experienced first hand while we were still in the boat. This enemy can come in any form — through people working against us, or things which changed due to us stepping out in faith, or both. But there stands our God, our Solid Rock, our Firm Foundation against whose power, no enemy can prevail. When we walk trusting on His faithfulness, holding onto His promises, remembering His call to “Come”, He will continue to keep that enemy underneath our feet and that storm to just whoosh around us without causing us any harm, and we will eventually reach Him.
Jesus’ faithfulness was so unfailing that, even when Peter sank when he shifted his focus from Him and cried out for help, He stretched out His hand and caught him. Jesus let him know that it was his doubt or diminishing trust which questioned what he believed first, which eventually made him sink. Peter did a remarkable thing by walking on the water, and he could have made it to the finishing point if he hadn’t let the doubt take him over. However, what Peter displayed stands as a model for us that we don’t always need our ‘Seas’ parted for us to walk to our destination, all the while when a terrible storm is raging. But we can walk over our seas, still remaining completely protected, from both the sea and the storm, while our focus is on Jesus, while we are learning and taking our next step according to His Word, in the light shown by Him. The added bonus is that even when we fail sometimes, and shift our focus, we still will remain protected because He who called us to “Come” is faithful, and will not let us sink based on our weaknesses.
We see this episode ending with Jesus and Peter back in a restful boat, with the storm completely ceased. With Jesus on the boat, it became a safe place again. All the others who were in the boat could really fathom the deity of Jesus at this point, and they acknowledged that Jesus indeed was God, the Son. We will be pondering more on entering into His restfulness, by honoring this worthiness of God in our next article.
References
- The Holy Bible, https://www.biblegateway.com/, New King James Version.
