Written by Aileen Bonilla, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ecuador
“And I promise to be faithful to you in sickness and in health, in abundance and in scarcity, and to love and respect you all the days of my life until death do us part.”
We all know these beautiful words, whether because we are married or, if you are not married, I am sure you have heard them at someone else’s wedding or in a movie. In the same way, God uses human language to better communicate with us. He uses our traditions, and one of them is the marriage vow, those promises we make to our future husband. In fact, God compares marriage to the relationship we should have with Him.
He wants us to see Him as a spouse whom we always seek to please with passionate, respectful, faithful, and unbreakable love. For this reason, faithfulness is very important for God since it will “measure” our faith. But what do I mean by faithfulness? This word comes from the Hebrew “emet,” which is associated with paternal kindness. This quality or attribute is characteristic of God and is received freely. Furthermore, this quality gives strength to the personal relationship we have with our Creator.
It is easy to understand that we have a God who is faithful to His promises; we know that if He tells us that we will not lack food, we must believe Him and sleep peacefully. However, when we are tested in faithfulness, we must be attentive whether we will always be there for Him. While it is true that this attribute belongs to God by nature, He wants us to be faithful to Him no matter the circumstances we are going through.
For me, this is a hard theme to talk about; during this time of mission alongside my husband, God has tested us in this. Our monetary circumstances have been difficult, and at the beginning of the mission, my oldest son's health was deteriorating. However, we tried to fight day by day with the discouragement that often wanted to take over our minds.
Despite the adverse circumstances and deserts that God allows in our lives, I must realize that these painful processes teach us a lot, even to pray, not more intensely, but to know how to ask. Usually, we pray for God to solve all our problems, but we do not pray for Him to give us the wisdom to seek a solution (James 1:5).
Faithfulness is a gift that we must ask for every day because our nature is to be the opposite. We see this in the people of Israel who were constantly unfaithful to God despite having seen all His wonders.
Like the Israelites, in our time I have seen how easily people go after other gods, reflecting their lack of commitment to God. They do not wish to know their Lord as their spouse. They do not want to study His Word and live in awe of all He has done, but rather, they live in pursuit of earthly things. That is why God demands that we love Him above all things (Deut. 6:5-9), not with a religious love subjected to rituals, but with a pure and sincere love, like the love of a bride—always tender, always fresh.
Are you pursuing this kind of faithfulness in your walk with God as your faithful spouse?