I know that seems like a strange title coming from a Pastor.  And of course, we all know that God is always faithful.  I mean, there is no questioning that.  Of course, God is faithful.  He is never-wavering.  He does not move to the left or to the right.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  How could we ever question the faithfulness of God?

            Ok, we laid out all of the pat answers that we are supposed to say.  We have done our Christian duty to say all of the ‘right’ things.  Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let’s be real.  The truth is that God is always faithful to His love for us.  So what He brings to our life or what He keeps out of our life; what He allows to happen and what He protects us from is all based on His love for us.  To love us is to want the very best for us.  I don’t think that we could say that we love our children completely if we did not have a sincere desire for them to have the most fulfilling life possible.  In the same way, God is not going to say that He has the ultimate love for us and then hope that our life never passes the bar of mediocrity.  So out of this love for us, there is a desire that we have the best life possible.  This is why Jesus said that He had come to give us life abundantly. 

            That sounds great.  I love to think that the One who is in control of everything wants me to have the very best life possible.  What a comforting thought!  The problem is that I don’t always understand that I am not equipped to obtain the very best life possible.  I must be changed.  The characteristics that do not attract the abundant life of God must be burned up.  As these are being burned, I must re-train my mind, my spirit, and my heart to operate under a new standard that does attract the abundant life of God.  It is during these moments of transformation where we doubt the faithfulness of God. 

            It is really our fault.  I mean we just don’t learn the easy way.  He says for us to be holy as He is holy.  But just because He says it doesn’t mean that we do it.  We might move that direction, but we don’t completely obey.  So in order for us to learn, sometimes He has to let us see the effects on our life for not doing things His way.  These are miserable times when we learn the consequences of arrogance, jealousy, pride, greed, and un-forgiveness.  If we don’t understand what God is doing during these moments, it is easy to turn bitter toward Him.  If we seek the blessings without the lessons, we are not transformed in a way that we can receive the most abundant life possible. 

            Israel was questioning the faithfulness of God during the time of the prophet Malachi.  They were not obeying God fully.  They were certainly going through all the right motions, but they were cutting corners.  And they began to say things like, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them.”  They also said, “Where is the God of Justice?”  They were questioning the faithfulness of God.  But He was being faithful.  He was being faithful to His magnificent love for them that will not allow Him to accept anything less than the abundant life God intended.  They were not living in a way that was preparing them for His greatest blessings.  They called Him unfaithful, but had He rewarded them while they were spiritually ‘cutting corners,’ He would have only taught them that it is not necessary to be fully devoted.  This ‘partially-devoted’ mentality would have limited their ability to receive the blessings from God. 

            You might be feeling as if God has not been faithful to you, but consider what you are asking Him to reward.  If you are asking for blessings without devotion, then you are asking Him to reward that which will limit your capacity for His great and wonderful blessings. 

            Because He loves us, He is faithful to our devotion and unfaithful to our ‘cutting spiritual corners’ in our life.  Cutting corners always leads us to destruction.  Why would He ever reward us when we start heading toward destruction?  He loves us too much.  God finishes his word to Israel through the prophet Malachi by saying this:

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.  And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.  Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the Lord Almighty.

Malachi 4:2-3

            Is there any doubt?  He is faithful!