I am in a Bible study group at work every Thursday during lunch. I have to be really grateful that we are allowed to meet, because I work in a big corporation where religious practices (of any kind) are usually not tolerated. We are going through just a variety of topics and researching them within the Bible. A couple of weeks ago we studied faithfulness.
I think we all know what faithfulness means, but I don't know if we truly grasp the idea of it (or at least I don't). According to the Bible we know that God is faithful and has to be faithful; He can't not be faithful. I think the reason we may not fully get this concept is because we, as humans, can so easily not be faithful. It's easy for me to make a commitment and break it. For example, I made a hair appointment and now I have to cancel it because I scheduled something else for the same time. I know that's a little thing, but we (or I) do stuff like this far too often. I need to be more like God; I want my faithfulness to reach to the skies (Psalm 36:5).
One other really great thought God showed me through this lesson (one of many) was the illustration of the talents Jesus talked about in Matthew 25. It's about a man who went on a journey, but he first gave three slaves talents (money). He gave one slave five pieces, another two, and another one. The slaves with five and two pieces took very good care of their responsibility and even earned more pieces to give to the man when he returned from his journey. However, the slave with only one piece was afraid to lose it so he just buried it and didn't earn any other pieces. In verses 21 and 23, the man tells the other two slaves, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master." The point of this illustration Jesus is trying to make is that we can't expect to get more if we aren't faithful (i.e. stable, secure, trustworthy, steadfast, truthful, committed, etc) with what we currently have.
I have been insanely busy this year, and I have taken on way too many responsibilities. I don't think I have been faithful to any of them, truly faithful anyway. One of my biggest pet peeves is someone saying they are going to do something and then not doing it. So I always do my absolute best to follow through with something I say I'm going to do. This bites me though, because I commit to something, but am so committed to it, something else in my life has to suffer. Unfortunately, this year I have taken on so many commitments, I can't truly stay faithful to any one because it overlaps another. So honestly, if I cannot be faithful to keep a hair appointment (or keep my house clean or read my Bible or....on and on), what right do I have to ask God to give me more? I can hear the conversation now: "But God, I know I can handle a baby too". "Yeah right, Jessie. How about you get a handle on what you already have first".
So my goal for this year is for God to say to me "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your Master." And of course, by "many things", I'm hoping He means baby.
