Faithfulness: September 9, 2011

SEPTEMBER 9 2011. TODAYS WORD FOR FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

FAITHFULNESS

DEFINITION:

True to one’s word, promises and vows; reliable, trusted or believed.

SCRIPTURE:

Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:24

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. I Corinthians 9:24.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Life is full of reversals, and we as Christians are not excluded from disappointments that make us want to give up. This is not what God wants from us. He wants faithfulness, a spirit of never quitting, to dominate our lives.

Paul challenges us in the race that is the Christian life to keep running (above verse). He gave these words to the believers in the church at Corinth. We are to run faithfully the race God has given us and should be driven by the knowledge that we run to honor our King and to receive from Him an eternal crown at the end of our race.

We have never been a couple that did a good job exercising. But in recent years we have committed to walk about two miles every day. It is tough for us to be faithful in doing this but Ken will admit that Dottie is the faithful one. If the day is close to being over she will ask very nicely, “Are we going to walk today?”

This comment about walking made us think about a man in the Bible named Enoch. There is not much written about him but in a short narrative in Genesis it says that “Enoch walked with God.” Walking with God requires faithfulness and commitment. One other thing written about Enoch was that God rewarded him for his obedience. Enoch did not have to experience death. God just took him to be with Him because he walked daily with God and had an unswerving obedience to God in a corrupt culture.

We urge you to be challenged by the faithfulness of Enoch as we are and to renew our commitment to walk faithfully with God today in all that we do. You are headed in the right direction when you walk with God and faithfully serve Him.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Matthew 5:6.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

PRAYER:

Help our family to live by the words of the song, He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own; and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.