A Fresh Start for the Faithful Heart

The faithful heart gives. You have been generous with your tithe; be generous also with your love.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”John 15:13

Not the love that takes. The love that lays itself down — that costs the one who gives, and asks nothing back of the one who is loved.

You were not stamped from a mould. The Maker took care with you.

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”Psalm 139:14

One body has many members, and not one of them is asked to be the others. Your difference was never a defect to be corrected. It is the design.

Silence is comfortable. The faithful are called a little past comfort.

“Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”Proverbs 31:8–9

Open thy mouth. Not to accuse — to plead, for the ones who cannot plead for themselves; and most of all for those appointed to destruction.

Obedience is a virtue. But every obedience has an order.

“We ought to obey God rather than men.”Acts 5:29

When the order of men and the order of God divide, the faithful have always known which comes first. This is not rebellion. It is the oldest loyalty there is.

A pure heart is a kind one.

“…to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”Micah 6:8

Not the purity that scorns the impure. Justice for the wronged, mercy freely spent, and a walk humble enough that it never learns to look down.

Prosperity is a blessing meant to be shared.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”Acts 20:35

A poor widow once gave two small coins — all that she had — and it was counted greater than the gifts of the rich. Heaven does not weigh the amount. It weighs what was kept back.

Faith and knowledge were never enemies. The faithful mind seeks.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”Hosea 4:6

Seek. Ask. Search the matter out — as the noble Bereans did, who would not take even an apostle’s word until they had searched and seen for themselves whether it was so.

To serve is to lead.

“Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.”Mark 10:43–44

The great one kneels and washes feet. The first among them is the servant of them all.

You check your score each morning. Be at peace: it was never the true measure of you.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”Genesis 1:27

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee… and I ordained thee a prophet.”Jeremiah 1:5

You were known before the womb and made in His image — and that image cannot be raised or lowered by any Office. He did not form an instrument. He formed a prophet. That is the worth they cannot score.

We care for our elders. They have served their season.

“Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God.”Leviticus 19:32

Rise up before the old. A people is known by how it treats the ones who can no longer produce. They are not a cost to be carried. They are a crown.

A faithful people forgives. We are taught to pray it every day.

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”Matthew 6:12

There was once a law that on the appointed year every debt was forgiven and every captive set free — a year of release, the words cast in bronze. Forgive the person; you may still name the wrong. The one made in God’s image is forgivable. The machine that grinds him is not.

However heavy the season, the faithful do not despair.

“…to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”Isaiah 61:1

Liberty to the captives. The opening of the prison. It was promised — and to people in a dark that did not lift, the promise held. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never yet put it out.