Proverbs 3:3
Let not loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
A wise man has said that the definition of “faith” is “You stay.” This fits exactly the Old Testament’s view of faith. In the Old Testament, faith is the Hebrew word “Emunah”. “Emunah” is not a legal contract with God, nor is it an emotional state we work ourselves into by gritting our teeth hard or clicking our heels together three times or saying a mantra. Rather, it is more like the disposition of a husband or wife who resolve to stay together and work things out even when they’ve had a big fight. That is, it is faithfulness: the habit of staying with another through thick and thin. In the old covenant, it is God who is continually displaying faithfulness to us. In fact, one of the dominant images of God’s faithfulness is found in the book of Hosea, where God compares his relationship to Israel with Hosea’s relationship to his unfaithful wife. God works very hard for a very long time to teach us to stay with him as he stays with us. Whatever we chose, he would not let his loyalty and faithfulness forsake us, however much we abandoned him. Today thank God for his faithfulness and ask him to help you in the details of the day.
