A Closer Walk
Does God find our hearts faithful? "Thou art the Lord God, Who chose Abram And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, And gave him the name Abraham. And Thou didst find his heart faithful before Thee, And didst make a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, Of the Hittite and the Amorite, Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite--To give it to his descendants. And Thou hast fulfilled Thy promise, For Thou art righteous," Nehemiah 9:7-8 NASB.
And Thou didst find his heart faithful before Thee. Does God find our hearts faithful? Well, what is faithful? Here is how our Lord defines faith. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," Hebrews 11:1 NASB. Here is a more earthly definition: "Complete trust or confidence in someone or something; strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof," Oxford dictionary. When we put all that together it might come down to this: Do we trust God enough to have the faith in Him to know that He will do the things that He said He would do? Do we have personal assurance of the things we hope for? Do we have the conviction that even though we can't see what our God is doing, we have the faith that He is doing what He promised?
This is the prophet Jeremiah proclaiming the message that God had given him. "'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart,'" Jeremiah 29:11-13 NASB. This passage is part of a message Jeremiah was delivering to the nation of Judah. (After the reign of Solomon Israel divided into two kingdoms, the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. During Jeremiah's time the Northern Kingdom had already been conquered by the Assyrians. Judah alone remained of the Kingdom David and Solomon had ruled over.)
The Lord God Almighty has a plan for us. For you, and for me. This plan is to give us a future, and a hope. God's plan for us, you and me, is not for calamity. Further, if we call upon Him and come to Him and pray, He will listen to us. And if we seek for Him, we will find Him, when we search for Him with all our hearts.
Jonah, a somewhat disobedient prophet, put it this way. "But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, 'Please Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity," Jonah 4:1-2 NASB. Jonah knew that the Lord was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness. He also knew that the Lord will turn away from the calamity he has decreed, if the people will repent and seek God's face.
It is the same with us, you and me. Even if God has already decreed calamity for us, He may turn away from that if we will repent and seek His face. Why? Because He is gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger. And He is abundant in lovingkindness. If our God does not find our hearts faithful, as He did with Abraham, we can correct that. We can repent; and we can seek His face. Because He has plans for us, you and me. Plans for a future and a hope.
"A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, he taketh my burden away, He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved, He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, that shadows a dry, thirsty land; He hideth my life in the depths of His love, And covers me there with His hand, And covers me there with His hand," words Fanny J. Crosby 1820-1915; music William J. Kirkpatrick 1838-1921.