Theology Thursday 05 - Surprised by Faithfulness

I was talking about faithfulness to a friend the other day. When it comes down to it, we really have the choice of being faithful or unfaithful to our friends, spouses, families, boyfriends and girlfriends. My friend told me that we shouldn’t be surprised by our faithfulness. That makes sense to me when thinking about other people; I’m a faithful boyfriend, friend, son and brother. But when it comes to my relationship with God, sometimes I doubt my faithfulness. And when I am faithful, I’m surprised by my faithfulness.

We shouldn’t be surprised by our faithfulness. We were created to be faithful; faithfulness was God’s intention for humanity. Sin’s impact is so deep, though, that we think faithfulness is out of the ordinary and unfaithfulness is the norm. So when I’m unfaithful to God, part of me tells me that I’m just acting how I’m supposed to act. And when I am faithful to God, I’m surprised by my ability to be a faithful person. God created me to be a faithful person but the stain of sin has made me unfaithful.

So when we’re faithful, we shouldn’t be surprised

We shouldn’t be surprised when we stare temptation in the face and walk away.

We shouldn’t be surprised when we do the things that God asks us to do.

We shouldn’t be surprised when we live as God intended us to live.

If we begin to see faithfulness to God as the norm, then we’ll begin to live more faithful lives. If I saw unfaithfulness as the norm in my friendships, that would become a self-fulfilling prophecy; I would be unfaithful to my friends. It works the same way with God. If we see unfaithfulness to God as the norm, which I often do, then we’ll end up being unfaithful. But if we change our mind sets to see faithfulness as the norm, then we might just start living the faithful life God intended. We wouldn’t be surprised by our faithfulness anymore.

How are you surprised by your faithfulness?