Faithfulness

By Guest Writer

“God, would you send me someone that I can pour my life into? Would you give me a guy that I can help to know you better?”

This is a heartfelt prayer I’ve prayed for years. I always thought that would mean me leading a Bible study at Starbucks or having a small group of guys in my home that I’d read Scripture with. There was nothing wrong with those things, but they never seemed to be His answer to my prayer. But I’ll never forget the day that God opened my eyes to how faithful He had been all along.

“Margret and Aaron are coming to stay with us,” my wife said.

“For a few days?” I asked.

“Uh, I’m not sure, but Aaron is trying out for a professional basketball team, and I told them they can stay as long as they need to.”

I knew Margret well, but Aaron I barely knew. That would change quickly because for a full summer we hosted this young married couple in our home. He taught me how to look respectable with a basketball in my hand. They spent time with our daughters and gave us breaks from parenting. It was a really beautiful time.

I moved about my life very normally in front of them. But one day, sitting at dinner, I held a short devotional with my family like I always do when we sit together. At the very end, Aaron asked me a question that changed everything. “What was that?” he asked. It took me a while to figure out what He was asking, but he had never seen a father sit around a table and lead his family in God’s Word. I laughed and gently described “family devotions” to him. From that point on, I realized that God was using the faithfulness He had developed in me to help develop faithfulness in Aaron. And it felt like I was doing nothing at all. Now, years later, Aaron teaches his own two young sons around their table.

And that’s the God we serve. He is “the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

His faithfulness was preparing me to disciple Aaron. His faithfulness was drawing Aaron deeper into who He was. His faithful love is continuing on to Aaron’s next generation of sons as he faithfully passes on what God is doing in his own heart. And it all started with a prayer calling on God’s faithfulness.

I now look back and realize there were more answers to my prayer. There were Kameron and Brianna. There was Isaac and there was Rodney. God was faithfully weaving the love of Jesus in and through me to others in His own ways and in His own time. All I needed to do was to call on His faithfulness, trusting He would answer. Trusting that He would work through me. And I still do. Will you call on His faithfulness today, expecting Him to give it to you and display it through you?

Written by Jonathan Pitts