God Is Faithful

by Charles F. Stanley

At some point, most of us have experienced the pain of “fair weather friends.” As long as they enjoy your relationship and time together, you can count on their companionship. But when life gets tough and being a friend requires sacrifice, they’re nowhere to be found. If it weren’t for adversity of some sort, many of us would find it difficult to identify our true friends.

In the same way, we are most aware of Christ’s faithfulness in times of trouble. If our lives remain free of pain, turmoil, and sorrow, knowing God can become purely academic. Were this to happen, our relationship with the Father could be compared to that of a great-great-grandfather: he may seem familiar through family stories, but in reality, we’ve never met.  We would probably have great admiration for him, but no intimacy or fellowship.

That is not the kind of relationship God wants with His children. Through the death of His Son, the Father has opened the way for us to have direct access to Him. There is potential now for intimacy between us and our Creator. Christ went so far as to say that we are His friends (John 15:14-15).

God is in the process of engineering circumstances through which He can reveal Himself to each of us. It is in times of adversity that we come to a greater realization of the Lord’s incredible faithfulness to us.

Imagine how Noah’s comprehension of God’s faithfulness increased after his deliverance through the flood. Think about how David’s trust grew after he killed the lion and bear that attacked his sheep. I can’t imagine what Gideon thought when God told him to get rid of most of his soldiers because he had too many. But after the victory, his faith soared. On and on we could go, telling similar stories. In each case, adversity was the means by which the Lord revealed that He can be trusted.

God’s faithfulness does not always take the form of deliverance from adversity. Instead, the Lord sometimes chooses to sustain us through it. Take, for instance, a man marooned on a deserted island. As he explores his surroundings, he discovers a speedboat washed up on shore with a full tank of gas. He cranks the engine and away he goes, delivered from being stranded.

Let’s take the same example again, only this time, he does not discover a boat. Instead the man happens upon a deserted house and a fruit orchard. Inside the house, he finds all the tools he needs to cultivate the orchard. Although he is still stranded on the island, he will be able to survive.

In both scenarios, the man was provided with what he needed to live. When God does not change our circumstances, He sustains us through them. This is what the writer of Hebrews referred to when he wrote,

Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).

This verse does not promise us a change of circumstances, freedom from pain, or deliverance from our enemies. It simply states that when we have a need, God will shower us with mercy and grace.

Paul certainly did not lack confidence in God’s faithfulness. Yet the Lord opted not to remove the “thorn” in his flesh. Instead, He chose to sustain Paul through his pain. When the apostle asked for relief, God’s simple reply was, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9). In other words, “Paul, you will continue to suffer. But if you hang in there with Me, you will make it.”

In his fascinating book “A Shepherd’s Look at Psalm 23,” Phillip Keller described God’s wonderful faithfulness when his wife passed away. He wrote,

During my wife’s illness and after her death I could not get over the strength, solace, and serene outlook imparted to me virtually hour after hour by the presence of God’s gracious Spirit Himself. It was as if I was repeatedly refreshed and restored despite the most desperate circumstance all around me.

Though God elected not to heal Phillip’s wife, He was recognizably faithful before, during, and after this ordeal. As the Lord did for the apostle Paul, He chose to answer Phillip’s cry for help with sustaining grace and mercy.

Dear friend, I do not know the nature of the adversity you are facing at this time. But God can use this trial to deepen your trust in His faithfulness. In times of difficulty and heartache, you and I can grow more intimate with Him in ways that we never would otherwise. Only then do we know—through experience—the faithfulness of our God.

Adapted from “How to Handle Adversity” (1989).