Contagious Faithfullness

Do you recall the last person that was faithful to you? In today’s society, those kinds of people seem to be rare. At the beginning of my business career in a large corporation, I experienced betrayal first hand. A couple of junior executives had become friends and one man confidentially related some personal issues that were taking place in his life and the struggles to work through them. Then one day a job promotion became available for which both men were qualified. The one candidate told the hiring manager all the details of the personal issues of the other candidate and of this man’s weakness for the job.

He broke every confidence that the one man had placed in him in order to try and get the job. Neither man was offered the position, and when co-workers found out about the incident, they were outraged at the one man’s betrayal of private conversations.

The man justified his actions by saying that no one should ever put their faith in anyone but themselves. It was their own fault. As sad as it may be, don’t we all do that today? We put our faith in our friends and they fail us.

We put our faith in marriage and many fail.  We put our faith in our job and it fails to satisfy us. We then become hardened to never trust or put our faith in anyone but ourselves. 

Wrong thing to do! 

Let’s take a look at the book of Ruth. Naomi experienced many disappointments including the death of her husband, a famine, and the death of her sons. Naomi and her two daughter-in-laws had moved away from their homeland to survive for a period of time. When times became good again in Judah, Naomi released her daughters-in-law to go back to their homeland and find happiness. Orpah was sad but went back to her people and to their gods, but Ruth was different. The famous words written in Ruth Chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 demonstrates her faithfulness to God and Ruth.

The Lord wants that kind of faithfulness from us because no matter how we treat Him he is faithful to us in every instance. When we are hurt or experiencing troubled times, He is faithful to love us and take care of us.

Realize that people are going to fail us. The key is to “love them where they are today” and remain faithful to them. No matter whether a loved one is sick and going through rough times, be faithful.

Be faithful to someone near you.

It’s contagious!