Today is…

a good day to remember that God knows when we are unfaithful.

“Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  Revelations 2:10 NASB

While God rewards faithfulness, some of us mistakenly think that if we are faithful, we will avoid suffering and that is simply not true. God never promises any of us that we will not suffer in some way, at some time in our lives. Our reward will come when we endure our suffering, as Jesus endured His, and still remain faithful.

In John’s vision, Jesus instructed him to write a letter to the church in Smyrna. In that letter He told them not to fear suffering, and instructed them to remain faithful during the suffering. Our instructions are the same today.

But God looks at faithfulness in several different ways. Not only are we to live our lives completely faithful to the Lord, but we are also to live our lives, if we are married, being faithful to our spouses.

Just as many Christians turn away from God when trouble enters their lives, many married people turn away from their spouse when difficulty and trouble enter their relationships.

“Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and who commit adultery.” (Hebrews 13:4 NLT).

Being a Christian is to know about commitment: Commitment to God, to our spouses, to our children, and to everyone around us. We cannot claim to be faithful to God if we are unfaithful to our spouses. We cannot claim to be faithful to God if we are not faithful to our children. We cannot be faithful to our children if we are not faithful to our spouses.

God sees us and knows if we are living up to our commitments. There is no hiding, there is no pretending. If we live secret, separate lives, we are being unfaithful to our children, our spouses, and to God.

There are no excuses to be made, just corrections to our behavior that are required. We should always endeavor to use the troubles and the suffering in our lives to make us better people, and to draw us closer to those we love: Our children, our spouses, and God.

Today is a good day to ask ourselves if we are being faithful to everyone we love.

If we are honest, and we find that the answer is, “No,” remember that God knows too. If you hand the “No” over to Him, He can help you change it to, “Yes” and today is a good day to remember that.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson