Daily devotion- closed for business come back later!
Faithful: Dependable
Have you ever gone to a business or store expecting it to be open, only to find it unexpectedly closed for a stocktake or restructuring? Or perhaps you’ve contacted a government office to discuss something important, only to be told that the one person who handles your enquiry isn’t available—and for some inexplicable reason, no one else can help because they alone deal with that task.
I am continually amazed at how often I encounter these situations, yet as a society we have almost come to accept them as normal.
Persistence, faithfulness, and reliability are becoming increasingly rare commodities in today’s world. When we book a tradesperson to come to our home, we are often given a broad time window during which they might arrive. We wait, sometimes all day, and occasionally no one turns up at all.
As followers of Christ, however, our ministry for the Lord and on behalf of the Lord must be marked by reliability, persistence, and faithfulness. The effectiveness of our role as parents also rises and falls on these same qualities. Either our words and instructions carry weight because they are consistently upheld, or our children soon learn that they can ignore them without consequence.
When we gather for church, we should expect our worship to be centred upon the Lord, free from unnecessary distractions. We should expect God’s Word to be opened at the beginning of the message, and we should follow the teaching with our Bibles open. This should be the pattern every time the church gathers because God’s Word is our authority.
The wonderful truth is that God Himself is perfectly faithful. He is never too busy for us. He is never “closed for business.” He never changes His character, His promises, or His love toward His children.
“For I am the LORD, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6)
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
Yet God is also looking for faithful people through whom He can work.
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)
Faithful men and women are becoming increasingly rare. Reliable, dependable, and persistent servants of God stand out in a world where commitments are often broken and promises easily forgotten.
May we be those rare people. May others know that when we give our word, we will keep it; when we commit to serving, we will be there; when we say we will pray, we will pray. As we faithfully serve the Lord day after day, He will use us mightily, and both the church and the lost around us will know they can depend upon us.
Faithfulness may not always attract attention, but it always attracts the Lord’s approval.