Being faithful. For the past couple of months, my meditation has been often on the topic of being faithful.

We are all so familiar with the scripture in which Jesus is speaking - in Matthew 25:21, "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”

Sometimes we are tempted to think of ourselves as not good enough or not as capable as others in many of the things we do - and that is the wrong thinking (in reality, sin) of “comparison-ism.”

As much as we do not want to be caught up in such a sin, the wrong thinking sometimes pops up when we are asked to do something and, suddenly, there it is - “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that” because in the back of our minds we have this paralysing bombardment of words that someone else could do it so much better.

I thought about it again today, the phrase of our Lord, “well done, good and faithful servant”. He did not say, “well done, good and wonderful singer”, or well done, good and powerful teacher”, but simply “well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

In light of this wonderful scripture and the looking forward to the time when we see Him and hear Him say, “well done thou good and faithful servant”; really, we might not all be able to be great at what we attempt but all of us can accomplish this goal. Being faithful . . . seems so small, yet, Jesus mentioned it several times, so it seemed very important to Him.

In the story of the birth of Jesus, there are many people who were not recognized as great but they were faithful. Mary was certainly faithful, to do what God asked of her. Then she was faithful to bring Jesus up and care for Him until “His time came.” She was a faithful servant of the Lord; she was also a faithful mother - remember, she was there at the foot of the cross.

Some might not think that Joseph played a great role in the plan for Jesus to be born as an infant, to grow and to eventually die on the cross for the sins of the world. But he was very much a part of God’s plan and was careful to be a faithful servant; protecting Mary, providing for the child and, at one point, even fleeing to protect the “plan of God” in His Son.

Then there were the shepherds. I grew up on a farm with lots of animals; somehow, I never grew fond of the animals. I try to imagine the job of the shepherd; how boring would that be! - watching sheep wander around. I don’t have a MP3 player, but if ever there would be a need, it would be in the life of a shepherd. Yet, they were faithful in their job. God didn’t send the message of the arrival of “newborn King” to the religious or political leaders of the day, but to the shepherds. They were in the exact right place at the right time doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing, being faithful servants, and they heard the angels proclaiming His birth.

I could go on and on looking at the simple lives of many of those who God either spoke to, or used in some way; many of them were not great in their own right; just faithful.

As you can tell, I’m trying to "get this", myself.

Jesus made reference to being faithful in service several times, one of those times is in Luke 16: 10. "Suppose you can be trusted with very little. Then you can be trusted with a lot. But suppose you are not honest with very little. Then you will not be honest with a lot;” that’s being faithful.

Then John, wrote in 3 John 1:5 “Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the believers. You are faithful even though they are strangers to you.”

2 Chronicles 34:12 records “The men were faithful in doing the work.”

Jesus in Matthew 24:45 "Suppose a master puts one of his servants in charge of the other servants in his house. The servant's job is to give them their food at the right time. The master wants a faithful and wise servant for this.”

Moses - What a study in being faithful. Num 12:7, “ ... my servant Moses. He is faithful in everything he does in my house.“

However, there was a day when Moses suffered from “comparison-ism. I have always identified with the part of Moses’ personality. . . so much so, that many years ago, I even purchased a book entitled “Here I Am, Send Aaron”. You can imagine the wonderful teachings of that book.

God never expects us to do anything like someone else, but to just be faithful - to do our part, to be obedient to Him.

All of our lives will be measured when we meet our Master, and hear Him say “well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Not that you were a great worker, great worshipper, great helper, but that you have been faithful. This week, I keep hearing so much talk on radio and television about goals for the new year. Some people have set some pretty high ones - chances are that they won’t accomplish their goals.

So, all of that to say this. Being faithful - sounds so simple, even so small. Then why do we find it so difficult?

I pray that I will continue to meditate on this topic, being faithful. It is a goal of mine today and I pray that I will always aspire to this goal all the rest of my life and to not get distracted by trying to be as good as someone else at anything.

As pointed out earlier, in Matthew 25, Jesus repeats almost the exact words in verses 21 and in verse 23, “His master replied, 'You have done well, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”

This is my meditation. Lord, help me, not to compare myself to your other servants, but to just be faithful myself.

Submitted by Naida