Cultivate Faithfulness

More on this farm­ing bit. Imag­ine a cow: regurgitation.

Lew and I read some Psalms together on Tues­day (I worked Swing Shift that day: 3 PM to 11 PM, nice for quiet time from 7ish to 2:30!).

Came across: “Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cul­ti­vate faith­ful­ness.” Psalm 37:3

Cul­ti­vate… Like farmers.

Cul­ti­vate… I love the word; it brings into our vocab and thus actions that of fos­ter­ing, prepar­ing, tend­ing, and maybe just a bit of coax­ing. Remem­ber that children’s book, “The Biggest Pump­kin Ever”? Two mice (unbe­knownst to each other) feed this one pump­kin sugar water each night… turn­ing it into the largest ever.

Each farmer has at least a cou­ple good tricks up their sleeves. I keep exclaim­ing, “How did he fig­ure out that?!” while read­ing Holzer’s dif­fer­ent methods.

Faith­ful­ness: The Scrip­tures men­tion this most in rela­tion to the Lord, so it only makes sense that when I see this in MYSELF it has come through the Holy Spirit¹.

We see Father Love and come to the res­cue in accor­dance to His Faith­ful­ness, and also exact Jus­tice and con­dem­na­tion based on His Faithfulness.

He is Faith­ful to Who He Is, and What He Says He Is Going To Do. We are Faith­ful to Jesus. (one def­i­n­i­tion states: True and con­stant in affec­tion or alle­giance to a per­son to whom one is bound by a vow.) Praise God that “if we are faith­less, He remains faith­ful, for He can­not deny Him­self…“² because “He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us…“³ “as a pledge of our inher­i­tance, with a view to the redemp­tion of God’s own pos­ses­sion, to the praise of His glory.“⁴

Cul­ti­vate Faith­ful­ness… in whom?

Myself, to Oth­ers and In Others.

Sow with a view to right­eous­ness,
Reap in accor­dance with kind­ness;
Break up your fal­low ground,
For it is time to seek the LORD
Until He comes to rain right­eous­ness on you.⁵

Also read John 15:1–17. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, the kind of fruit that endures…”

1. Gala­tians 5:22 [↩]
2. 2 Tim­o­thy 2:13 [↩]
3. 1 John 3:24 [↩]
4. Eph­esians 1:14 [↩]
5. Hosea 10:12 [↩]