“Well done, my good and faithful servant!” Don’t you desperately yearn to hear those words from Matthew 25 spoken over you as you enter into the Savior’s presence when your time on this earth is complete? As you walk into the Open Arms of the One who sacrificed it all, you are enveloped into a deep embrace—not the side hug of a friendly greeting—but the embrace that holds on just a little longer. A personal touch that communicates more than a welcome but invites you to relax all those tense muscles and just be. After all, you’re home!

I can’t fathom that I am the only one who aches for that encounter, to finally feel that sense of wholeness that will only come in His presence. And yet, if I desire to be called faithful, then He’s compelling me to make a choice each and every day to Follow Through on my commitment to Him. For me to be described as faithful, then I must be willing to “think like a farmer,” as Glenna Marshall shares in Everyday Faithfulness. “Faithfulness by definition calls us to be loyal, steadfast, constant, and reliable. But outside the agrarian corners of the world, we struggle to model our spiritual faithfulness after farmers waiting for rain like their lives depend on it.” If I yearn to hear those words, perhaps I should engage in the Habit of Deep Work to uncover what Everyday Faithfulness looks like for me.

What Marshall describes as Christian perseverance, this Everyday Faithfulness, is upholding the responsibilities that He has called us to do while also trusting God to work, but it is often a Long Obedience with slow-yielding results. “The devices we chain ourselves to for knowledge, connection, and entertainment do not require that we wait or try very hard. We press buttons or give voice commands, and the world rushes to our fingertips. If the Wi-Fi is poor, we bristle with impatience. If the content on one site bores us, we click over to another. Our culture does not aid us in the discipline of perseverance, and yet God calls us to persevere in faithfulness to him.”

On this pilgrimage to a flourishing life, it’s easy to be faithful when life is running smoothly, but when my Unanswered Prayers appear to be languishing somewhere in the ether for decades upon decades, that Everyday Faithfulness is inconvenient. Treating God like Siri in the Sky is not the solution, cultivating a Habit of Resilience is. “This is the underpinning of faithfulness: persistence whether or not it is convenient. Faithfulness in following Christ isn’t optional for true believers. Whatever seasons we find ourselves in this side of heaven, God still calls us to faithfulness. Perseverance in Christ is our daily work. A steadfast grip on the gospel is still God’s charge to us even when our schedules are full, our trials are many, or our days are mundane.”

Perhaps, like me, you are attempting to locate the patience and fortitude it takes to engage in Everyday Faithfulness, and it’s in those moments of seeking answers that we can be reminded that true discipleship requires a Long Obedience in the same direction—moving towards God each and every day and in each and every situation—even during Ordinary Time and Simple Tuesdays. “God has given us the means we need to persevere today, twenty years from now, and all the days in between. Through his word, prayer, and the church, we are equipped to draw near to God, hold fast to our confession of faith, and remain rooted in truth through the people of God.”

What keeps you motivated for the long haul—to remain faithful as a follower of Christ, to continue to eat well for physical health, to pass courses that lead to a degree, to continually practice at a sport on the road to achievement, or to run mile after mile for that marathon? What habits have you instilled into the rhythm of your life that will enable you to maintain the perseverance necessary to hear the words, “Well done”? Please consider sharing your insights to these questions and this idea of Everyday Faithfulness in the comments below.

Reference:

Marshall, G. (2020). Everyday faithfulness: The beauty of ordinary perseverance in a demanding world. Crossway.