Faithfulness is a powerful thing. For example, how do banks give you a loan? When they see how faithful you have been in repaying a loan or your overall history with them. A healthy marriage is also built upon faithfulness. When faithfulness is present, trust is strengthened and relationships become stronger. Almost every area of life is strengthened by faithfulness.
I know of some people who are enormously successful in their career because they have been faithful in their work over the years. I also know of some people who were not so faithful and are now struggling in some areas of life.
People always put top premium on trust and trust comes when a person is faithful in all areas of life. No shortcuts, just faithfulness.
This Bible Story about the Parable Of The Talents in Matthew 25:14-29 shows us some important things about faithfulness:
- Faithful Workers Will Be Rewarded
This is how God will treat any faithful person. When they focus on being faithful with whatever they had, they were rewarded with more. The key here is to focus on doing the few things really well and NOT to be distracted. There are so many things that can distract us from bringing increase with the talents we have and we need to make firm decisions to stay true to whatever assignment we have been given.
The faithful workers were given more blessings but the unfaithful worker lost his blessings and the master was angry on him. Proverbs 20:6 says that “Most men will proclaim his own goodness, But a faithful man who can find“. In this kind of mindset, the unfaithful person refuses to realize that he (or she) might be unfaithful in some area of their life.
- The Master Gave Them Work According To Their Ability
Some people’s level is very high and they become managers, directors and top executives. Like Pastors, cell leaders, Sunday school, etc.. But they also have to be faithful at their level. The master gave according to their level.
So don’t be jealous of other people if they are given something better then you. Just be faithful in whatever you are given and you will be given more. The servant with one talent was not faithful with the one while the others with more were and each received according to their faithfulness.
Sometimes we can spend so much energy worrying about what other people are doing and being blessed with that we end up not doing anything.
- Faithfulness Is Measured Over The long Term
Our church was started more than 20 years ago with myself, my wife and a lady and her blind daughter. The lady’s name is Violet and we call her Aunty Va. Aunty Va is still attending church faithfully now even though she is more than 70 years old. On the other hand, some people are very faithful in the church meeting or cell meetings in the 1st year or second year but after that they only attend church or cell once a month or once in 3 months.
Some people are faithful when they need something from God so they really pray and fast and read the bible and serve the Lord faithfully. But once they get some money or get healed, they relax and don’t bother. This is not the kind of lifestyle that pleases the Lord. We should be faithful all the time.
The lazy servant went and hid the talent in the mud because the Master was gone a long time and so he didn’t worry about the master’s talent.