“…Well done good and faithful servant….” Matthew 25:23
We often hear the above text quoted as an encouragement to greater faithfulness in our life’s service to the Lord – and rightly so. The reason being, when standing at the judgment seat of Christ, we all want to hear that rewarding tribute given by the Lord Himself. But it seems to me when many Christians use the words, “faithful” or “faithfulness” these days; it is often directed toward the Lord Himself. And again this is right and good, as we would all agree that the Lord is faithful! (1Cor 1:9)
But what about us? – God’s people. I ask this because I believe we tend to get justly excited when the Lord opens up opportunities, arranges circumstances, positively answers prayer, blesses our families and a whole host of other reasons, but at the same time, neglectful of our own faithfulness to the Lord.
This may sound a little harsh but it’s a reality if we are honest before the Lord.
We tend so often to just coast along waiting for God to do something wonderful and even redemptive in people’s lives while we ourselves are not really ‘on board’ or living out faithfully, Jesus Christ.
We too easily fall into the trap of abusing the ‘amazing grace’ of God by stepping back with an attitude of “Que será, sera, whatever will be, will be.” We wait for God’s faithfulness to do its work while we accept a ‘back seat’ kind of arrangement!
This should not be so among God’s people. Our faithfulness to the Lord in every aspect of life needs be to the fore. It needs be visibly demonstrated no matter what the cost.
I will leave you with a quote from J MacArthur from his Matthew commentary.
Our need is not to prove God’s faithfulness but to demonstrate our own, by trusting Him both to determine and to supply our needs according to His will. [Grace Quotes]