Always Faithful: Stories of God’s Faithfulness
2 Timothy 2:13
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
And just like that, we say goodbye to 2023 and hello to 2024. I hope your New Year’s is off to a great start! When I think back to all that happened in 2023, I think of God’s faithfulness in the stories of 2023. Let me give you a few examples.
The year began with grief in our family. We said goodbye to Gina’s dad, Curtis Bicknell. Let me be clear, Curtis was an iconic person. He was a remarkable man. And his absence in our family has left a gaping hole. And with his death, we are grieving. And that grief has manifested itself in different ways—sometimes tears and sorrow, sometimes shock and disbelief, and sometimes depression. But there is something else we have experienced: God’s faithfulness. Every day of this year, God has been faithful.
Another story of this year has been a cancer diagnosis. Earlier this year I was diagnosed with Melanoma and the result has included multiple scans, two surgical procedures, and eight cancer treatments, along with dozens of questions and concerns. Yet throughout this story, which is still being written by God, we have experienced His faithfulness. Every step of the way, God is always faithful.
Another story of this year is the ministry expansion of DSM. In the middle of cancer treatments and family grief, the day-to-day operations at DSM have been quite busy. Each of the ten (10) churches or schools served has a unique story. One is a story of relocation and yes, God has been faithful each step of the way. Another story includes founding a new school and God has been faithful to that new ministry. Another ministry story is a church restart. Last year at this time, this church was facing imminent closure. Yet today, the church has restarted, called a new pastor, has a new vision, and yes, has experienced the faithfulness of God.
As you can see, it has been quite a year. And God has been faithful every step of the way. In fact, now that I think about it, every year is a year of God’s faithfulness. Even in the times of our unfaithfulness, God is still faithful. II Timothy 2:13 says it well, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” God’s faithfulness is not dependent on our faithfulness or our obedience. Why? Because faithfulness is part of God’s character. It is who He is; He is faithful, He is always faithful. And in His faithfulness, He is writing His story in us.
Speaking of a story - think back with me for a minute to elementary school grammar lessons, and the basic structure of the sentence. You will probably remember that a sentence contains a subject and a verb. Some sentences also contain an object. According to PerfectEnglishGrammar.com, “We use the word 'subject' to talk about the pronoun, noun or noun phrase that does the action of a verb.” According to the same website, “We use the word 'object' to talk about the thing or person that the verb is done to, or who receives the verb.”
Another way of thinking about this is that the SUBJECT DOES the action and the OBJECT RECEIVES the action.
I suspect you are thinking “What in the world does this have to do with the stories of God’s faithfulness in our lives?” Well, here it is.
The truth is that the subject of the stories of our lives is God and His faithfulness. We are the objects, the ones receiving His faithfulness. Here is why this is important. We are not the subject of the stories of “our” lives; we are the object. “Our” life stories are really His story of faithfulness to us.
I want to invite you to join me each week as we think about God’s faithfulness. And the way we are going to see this is through the stories of a few special people. You will get to know some people dear to me, people who deeply walk with God, and people who have experienced God’s faithfulness through joy, suffering, victories, and tragedies.
As you read these stories over the next few weeks, it is important to remember that God is writing our story and therefore these are stories of His faithfulness to us.
The first story comes out next week. I hope you will join me and I have a special request. Please pass this along to someone else who just might need to know that regardless of what they are experiencing in life, God is always faithful.