A faithful man who can find?

This is what God has been teaching and training me in recently…

Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?”

Many people say a lot of things, but like the Scripture says, “a faithful man who can find?”

Jesus was steadfast and faithful to the mission the Father had given Him. He was obedient, the Scripture says, all the way to the cross. I think we admire guys who don’t talk much but just “get it done” because they image the steadfastness of God. Personally I would rather have a dad who spoke little but was dependable than one who was full of beautiful articulate words yet totally unreliable.

Our world is full of these two kinds of men, but how few there are who possess both. How few men exist who are faithful and reliable to death, yet communicate at the heart level with others and weep with those who weep. Is it an anomaly to be strong and tender? Yes–but not an impossibility. In perfectly and fully being both Jesus gave an image and example of what God intended that a man be. According to Hebrews 1:3, Jesus is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…”

My hope is for men to be transformed into the masculine image of God that Jesus displayed for us. The means for this nearly impossible change are found in words like, “What is impossible with man is possible with God,” “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing,” and ”He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion…” (luke 18:27; John 15:5; Phil 1:6).

A quick glance around society does little to encourage this hope, but Jesus has been making men like this for ages. Most recently He has given me a few faithful men to follow in so much as they have followed Jesus. Jim Elliot and Eric Liddell have been a great inspiration to me. Elliot was a stud inside-out whose sole passion was to please Jesus. He died by spearing as a jungle missionary sixty years ago. Eric Liddell, the olympic champion and main character of Chariots of Fire was also a stud sold out for Jesus. He was the most endeavored athlete in Scottish history and gave his life as a missionary for the people of China, dying a few years before Elliot in a Chinese internment camp. Both left abundant opportunity to follow the Lord’s call faithfully–unto death. 

And then my dad. The greatest gift was to watch him die, faithful to the end. He was fierce and reliable as a rock…and he was the biggest softy in the world, crying in Disney movies and hugging his kids nonstop. When the Lord called him to suffer with cancer he found strength and peace to go home joyfully–not in himself, but in God, and in His Word. Four years ago he died to cancer faithfully praising Jesus; just a normal guy, transformed by the grace of Jesus. He is a grace from God reminding me that the Word is true and Jesus is powerful to change a normal messed up dude like myself into a faithful, strong, and tender man like Him. Hebrews 12:1-2–press on.