Hoekstra's Day by Day by Grace (July 25th)

Even More on God's Faithfulness and His Promises

The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. (2 Thessalonians 3:3)

Perhaps, a word of reflection upon our context would be helpful. In our daily studies on growing in the grace of God, we have been looking at the promises of God. Living by God's promises is comparable to living by His grace. In both perspectives, the critical matter is having God at work in our lives, doing what He alone can do, doing what we could never deserve or never produce on our own. In considering God's promises, we have allowed the Lord to increase our confidence in His promises by focusing first on His ability, and now on His faithfulness. Our present verse proclaims God's faithfulness, while adding a two-fold promise concerning high priority issues of Christian living.

The faithfulness of God is one of the grand themes of Scripture. "The Lord is faithful." Our God is reliable, so we can rely upon Him and His abundant promises. "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:9). The true and eternal God, who has invited us into an intimate relationship with His Son, is trustworthy, so we can trust in Him and His bountiful promises.

For example, we can trust in His promise to bring spiritual stability to our lives. "The Lord is faithful, who will establish you." This is one of the major needs in people's lives. On our own, we can easily be unstable and inconsistent. The Lord wants to turn us into responsible and steadfast servants of God. He will be faithful to do this, if we humbly open our hearts to the work of His word and His Spirit.

Another example of how God wants to demonstrate His faithfulness is in protecting us from the evil one. "The Lord is faithful, who will…guard you from the evil one." We are God's sheep. "Know that the LORD, He is God…We are His people and the sheep of His pasture" (Psalm 100:3). Our enemy is like a lion, who wants to consume us. "Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Sheep do not do well against lions. However, we have a wonderful shepherd, who will not flee when the attack comes. "The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own" (John 10:13-14).

Our Lord wants us to know that we can count on Him to be faithful to keep His promises to establish us and to guard us.