What Is Steadfast Love & Faithfulness?

What Is Steadfast Love & Faithfulness?

Proverbs 3:3 “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.”

This is one of those times where I looked up the meaning of the verse so I could gain a better understanding of what it was saying.  I read two articles that gave me more insight into what this verse is saying.  I will put a link for the two articles in the show notes.  The first article talked about steadfast love.  Steadfast love is a predetermined commitment to love regardless of the qualifications of the beloved.  “I am here for you because that’s who I am,” rather than, “I am here for you as long as you are lovable.”  How great is that?  Wouldn’t it be great if we could love people with a steadfast love?  I think my kids know that I love them even when I don’t love their behavior.  I have always told them that.  When they were younger they had a lot of behaviors I didn’t like.  I would always tell them, “I love them, I just don’t like their behavior.”  I think they know in their heart this is true.  However, I have never thought of steadfast love being a love because of who I am instead of who they are.  Actually when I think about it I guess I have thought that, but didn’t know that was steadfast love.  I know I love them because I am their mom.  It doesn’t matter what they do, and trust me, they have pushed the boundaries, I will always love them because I am there mom.

Did you know this is how God feels about us too?  He loves us, not because of anything we do, not because of who we are, but because of who He is.  The second article I read talked about how the first line in this verse is Covenant language.  It says that faithfulness and steadfast love characterize God’s behavior toward His people.  In return since covenants are reciprocal, we are expected to return faithfulness and steadfast love to Him.  Covenant language is a new term for me.  I know God made several covenants with His people throughout the various times, I just don’t remember hearing that term before.  I do love thinking about covenants made with God though.  To me a covenant is so personal and the thought that God didn’t just make this covenant with His people as a whole, but that He made this covenant with each one of us just blows my mind.  Think about that for a minute.  You God loves you so much He made a covenant with you.  God is so good!!

We talked about steadfast love, now let's talk about faithfulness.  One thing both articles mentioned that I didn’t know is that faithfulness means truth.  One of the articles also said trustworthiness, which I can see.  In a marriage if you are faithful then you are trustworthy.  If you are not faithful then you are not trustworthy.  However, I don’t think I ever thought about the word faithful meaning truth.  The first article said faithfulness is saying and doing truth.  It said faithfulness and steadfast love will often be found together in the Bible.  The author gave a great analogy.  He said these two virtues are like a kite and string.  Love functions best when tethered by truth.  When we love without commitment to truth, we are like a kite without a string.  Likewise, when we are true without love, we’re more string than kite.  If we offer truth to people without love, they likely won’t hear it as intended.  Have you ever told someone something and although what you said was the truth, it was said without love and so it was rejected?  

Tony and I really enjoy watching The Good Doctor tv show.  It is a doctor show where one of the doctors has Autism Spectrum Disorder.  He struggles to feel the emotions others feel.  He is big on telling the truth and he does not do it with love most of the time because he doesn’t feel love like others do.  It is interesting to watch how people react when he is talking to him.  For me, I can truly see what a difference it makes not just what you say, but how you say it.  My children were pretty strong willed when they were younger.  I learned early on that how I said something made just as much of a difference as what I was saying.  I could say the same thing two different ways and one way would get the response I wanted and one way would not.  For instance, telling my kids they had to get in the shower would create a negative response.  However, simply asking them to take a shower sometime in the next 10 minutes would usually result in a shower.  If you are not getting the results you want when talking to someone lately, take a minute and think about how you are talking with them.  Are you giving them the truth without love?  Is there any way you could switch up how you are talking to them?  

Now that we have talked about steadfast love and faithfulness are, we can talk about what it means to not let it forsake you.    Maybe you know what this means.  I didn’t.  That is one of those words I know, but couldn’t really explain it if someone asked.  I thought it meant something negative in this verse though.  Almost like, don’t let it get you into trouble.  What forsake means is abandon or renounce/give up.  So what this verse is saying is don’t abandon steadfast love and faithfulness.  Don’t walk away from them, keep them with you always.  I am glad I looked this up because once I truly understand what a verse means it takes root more in my soul.  Also, I don’t skip over when I am reading the Bible.  Whenever I read it again I smile.  This is one reason I love doing this podcast, it helps me understand what I am reading.  I gain a better understanding of God’s Word and what He is calling us to.

The last line of this verse is great.  It says, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  When I first read “bind them around your neck,” I thought of something really heavy, almost like a millstone around your neck.  However the second article talked about how our love and trust in God should be obvious to others, like a beautiful necklace which would adorn our necks.  This is a much better thought and representation now that I understand the verse better.  Wouldn’t it be great if all Christians had steadfast love and trustworthiness and they wore it around their neck on display for the whole world to see?  How many more people do you think would fall in love with Christ if they saw the steadfast love and faithfulness He promises us lived out in our lives?  The first article talks about how binding this virtues around our neck is like wearing our fitness tracker around our wrist.  Our fitness tracker can only do it’s job if we remember to put it.  These virtues can only help us if we make sure we put them on each morning and have them with us throughout the whole day.  

What does God mean when He says to write them on the tablet of your heart?  The first article says this means to press them into yourself so deeply that you live them genuinely from the inside out.  That sounds like a pretty good plan.  Anytime you want to make a change everyone always says you need to change on the inside before you can change on the outside.  The second article says that writing something on your heart means (1) it touches you deeply, (2) you are marked by it, and (3) you will always remember it.  I think both of these give a great idea of what God is talking about when He asks us to write these virtues on the tablet of our heart.  God wants us to love with a steadfast love and to be faithful, not just towards him, but to all those in our lives and those we meet.  This is not something that just happens, we need to intentionally remember this each day, we need to think of it often so we can ingrain it into our very being.  The good news is, God will help us with this.  We never have to do anything on our own or by our own strength.  God is always there to help us.  All we need to do is reach out and ask.

Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing and we love you.  We ask you to help us develop this steadfast love and faithfulness you are calling us to.  Help give us an understanding of how we can write this on our hearts and bind it around our necks.  We say yes to this call Lord, now we just need you to show us how, as you always do when we ask.  We thank you Lord, for always being there for us.  You are the almighty one and you never cease to show us what to do, you never cease to support us and strengthen us.  We are so grateful Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow!  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

The first article was titled Proverbs 3:3-4 | Wisdom & Loving Faithfulness by Matt Broadway (Click Here)

The second article was titled Family Wisdom. Proverbs 3:3-4 by Britta Lafont (Click Here)

https://brittalafont.com/family-wisdom-proverbs-33-4/

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