Old Faithful

Old Faithful

May 22, 2017

2 Timothy 2:13 "In we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself."

Old Faithful is the name of a geyser, a natural phenomenon, that spurts boiling hot water and steam into the air. It has the name Old Faithful because of the reliability in its behavior. Since the geyser was named as part of the first US National Park system in 1872, it has recorded more than a million eruptions. It bursts forth with boiling water and steam, on average every 72 minutes, with a 90 percent confidence rate, within a 10 minute window. It's name meets up to its behavior of reliability. You can bet, if it has worked the last 130 years, it will most likely work tomorrow. Something even more faithful is the Sun, or rather the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The earth was put in motion however long ago and because of it's reliability you can predict what time the Sun will appear in the eastern sky every morning and what time it will set in the western sky in the evening. This is just how the Lord set it up, with reliability in motion.

You and I are no where near as constant as the Earth's rotation around the Sun, and cannot compare with Old Faithful and the 10 minute window of predictability. We are fickle and as random as a unicorn some days. For many of us, as Christians, we attempt to remain true to him with our behavior, but probably fail on a constant basis, very rarely able to remain faithful to the Lord every minute of the day. We are more faithful at failing Him than remaining true to Him, at least it seems that way for many seasons of our lives. Yet for some reason, for thousands of years, the Lord is still our God, still on His throne, and still not shocked at our behavior. The Lord still loves us, still forgives us, and still searches after us. The Bible says that He remains true even when we don't. The Bible says that of all the things the Lord is capable of, breaking His faithfulness to us is not possible for His character. He is more faithful than Old Faithful, even more perfect in reliability than the Sun, and stills loves you and me when we fall short on a daily basis.

The verbiage is that the Lord cannot deny Himself, meaning He cannot change His behavior. Liken it to a relationship, if someone breaks covenant with you in your relationship, sometimes the grievance is so large the damage to the relationship is not able to be repaired. You've lost friends, even loved ones before, when the trust was broken and faith could not be restored in the safety of the relationship. This is not so with the Lord. No matter how bad you harm the relationship, because He cannot deny Himself, He is not able to walk away from His behavior of still loving you and still wanting to have you in His life. When the Bible says He cannot deny Himself, it is referencing the Lord's character and ability to forgive no matter what and desire reconciliation.. The Lord cannot remove His ability to forgive, or love, or restore. He is always faithful.

The benefit of this, no matter what you do, you cannot force the Lord to stop extending His forgiveness to you. If you screw up, even intentionally, and desire forgiveness, the Lord's character will not stop Him from forgiving you. Try reading it like this: even if you fail Him, the Lord's character is so permanent that He will keep on forgiving you. It's comforting to know that the Lord can't actually give up on you. It's one of the things he cannot do. He can't quit on His creation.

Don't take my word for it; look it up:  Mal 3:6, Eph 4, James 1