22 April 2024
Bec Muir
You might have heard the economic advice, “Look after the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves.” The idea behind this adage is that if you learn to be careful with the small financial decisions, you will naturally be careful with the big financial decisions. I believe that it is similar with faithfulness. It is easy to focus on the big-ticket faithfulness items, like being faithful to my spouse, or not stealing, or giving regularly at church. Or perhaps, when we think about being faithful to God, we think about how many conversations we have had about Jesus to neighbours or colleagues, or how often we have a quiet time, or whether we have been on a short-term mission trip. However, when we start looking at what the Bible says about faithfulness, we are also called to practise what I call “ordinary faithfulness”. These are the daily opportunities to make a choice to be faithful to Jesus and his values, rather than doing things our own way. It is about being faithful in the everyday details of life.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, Jesus has a lot to say about righteousness or faithful living. It is helpful to notice what Jesus focuses on. He talks about not insulting our brother in anger, rather than just not murdering someone (5:21-22). He talks about not ogling lustfully, rather than just not entering into an extramarital affair (5:27-28). He talks about speaking truthfully, rather than making grandiose oaths that might give us loopholes (5:33-37)1.
Read more: Faith in action has encouraged me in church growth initiatives
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is concerned with our heart attitudes, not just our actions. But He’s also concerned with daily faithfulness, with choosing to do what is right in the details of our lives, not just in the big things. It is easy to kid ourselves that we are doing ok because we acted with integrity in the big financial decision at work, and ignore the unfair angry outbursts to the family in the evening after a stressful day.
Another theme connected to ordinary faithfulness is the idea of being faithful in the circumstances we find ourselves in. In Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus addressed seven churches in Asia Minor. He addressed the individual situation of each church, calling them to be faithful in their specific context. For the Christians in Ephesus, this looked like remembering their first love and reviving their initial faithfulness (Revelation 2:2-7). For the Christians in Smyrna, it looked like being faithful to death in a coming persecution (Revelation 2:8-11). For the Christians in Thyatira who had not been drawn in by false teaching, Jesus said He would not lay any additional burden on them (Revelation 2:18-29). For the Christians in Laodicea, faithfulness looked like repentance and allowing Jesus back in (Revelation 3:14-22). Ordinary faithfulness will look different for different people in different contexts. God is not asking you to live for Him the way someone else does. He asks you to present yourself, with your faith, your gifts, your abilities, as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-8).
Back in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus talks about the need to trust God, to seek his kingdom and righteousness, trusting that God will take care of you. God is the one who sees you, who is attentive to your needs, who asks you in the middle of those needs to prioritise faithfulness, to seek the kingdom and righteousness. It is easy to become discouraged in the circumstances life throws at us. Ill health, or opposition, or financial stress, or aging parents, or any number of stresses can all make faithfulness seem harder. We can compare our capacity with someone else’s capacity, or our gifts with someone else’s gifts, and feel inadequate in our ability to serve God faithfully. However, God is not asking you to serve Him like someone else does. He is asking you to be faithful in the circumstances He has placed you in, trusting that He will provide all that you need to do that.
Read more: Our quiet steps of faith count as we seek God
In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus says that many will come boasting of the great things they have done for Him, and He will say “I never knew you.” I never knew you. How can we be the people that Jesus does know, who He welcomes with a smile, who He greets by name? Notice in these verses that what is not important is how impressive your ministry is. It is whether you do the will of God.
The idea of “ordinary faithfulness” can give us a challenge and an encouragement. The challenge is to pay attention to the daily opportunities for faithfulness. Don’t just focus on the big, impressive ways to serve God. Be listening to the Spirit’s prompting in the day-to-day opportunities to do things God’s way, in the details of life. Be seeking to cultivate godliness in the small things. Don’t kid yourself that they don’t really matter.
And the encouragement is that God cares about those daily acts of faithfulness. God is pleased with them. When He sees you put in the effort to guard your words or to be patient with your friend or to resist temptation, God celebrates. This is what matters to God, more than how many people you convert or how many church rosters you are on.
You see, it’s God’s project to build the kingdom, not yours. But when you are seeking to be faithful to Him each day, in the circumstances He has placed you in, He will use you in ways you don’t expect. He doesn’t need a Christian superstar. He wants you, in your ordinary life, choosing ordinary, daily, deliberate faithfulness. That’s a person Jesus knows. That’s a person God will use. That’s a person who, having been faithful in the small details, can be counted on to be faithful in the big things too.
Bec Muir is assistant faculty at Ridley College and is working on a PhD in the New Testament.
For more faith news, follow The Melbourne Anglican on Facebook, Instagram, or subscribe to our weekly emails.
