Nehemiah Chapter 9: Verses 7-8 (NIV)
“You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.”
Nehemiah Chapter 9: Verses 33-34 (NIV)
“In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep.”
There follows in this chapter of Nehemiah, a period of repentance by the people who returned from exile. They saw the contrast between the faithfulness of their ancestor Abraham towards God, and the fickle nature of those who followed on. Abraham had been prepared to give up his only son, Isaac. His descendants quickly went their own way and paid no attention to God as long as things were going well for them. Yet in times of trouble and hardship, they cried out to God once more. And God remained faithful to them.
I’m not sure my heart is as faithful as Abraham’s either. There are times that my feet have faltered on my Christian walk, and yet God still remains faithful to me also. Let this be an encouragement going into the year. God is always faithful! But may I make the effort to be consistently faithful to Him in return.
Lord,
If I have to make one resolution for the coming year, then let it be that I might be consistently faithful to You. Holy Spirit help me to fulfil that resolution because I know that I am no different to those who have gone before. I ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.