What is one quality you would want to exemplify most in this lifetime? The quality I would choose today is faithfulness. Faithfulness incorporates a lot of directives.
Firstly, faithfulness encapsulates God’s ongoing relationship to the world and even more so, of believers to God and to others. Faith is required to lead us on this blind journey, on our very own blank slate.
Secondly, we are blessed with other gifts if we live by faith; joy, hope, perseverance, and love. Joy is a gift from God as a result of faith and obedience. As quickly as we can experience joy, it can be robbed of us when we sin.
I remember when I was age 5, I took a pack of gum from the store. When I got into the car, my mom saw the pack of gum. She asked where I had gotten the gum, and I told her I had taken it from the store.
I almost remember the feeling of shame telling her that I had taken the gum. It wasn't nearly as bad as what came next. She pulled me back into the store to return the gum to the clerk. I also had to apologize for taking the gum.
That 5-year-old little girl learned a valuable lesson that day. I didn't like any of those feelings that went along with the choice to take the gum, which I knew wasn't right. I knew it wasn't right to steal, and I felt shameful. When we sin, there is a finite feeling that moves within us that just doesn't feel right. Sin robs us of joy.
How grateful I was when that feeling of guilt and shame passed from me. Just like the rising of the sun on a new day, we are given a second chance and a third and so on, until we learn the lesson before us and seek forgiveness.
Psalm 119:90- “Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.”
I'm thankful for the gift of joy granted me through perseverance, hope, and faithfulness in a loving God, who sent His Son Jesus to cover our sins.
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