Four Ways I Know God Is Faithful

In the Black Hills of South Dakota, there’s a national monument called Jewel Cave. It takes your breath away to journey below the surface of the earth and view this natural wonder. Visitors book the guided tour months in advance. During the tour, a park ranger takes you on an elevator ride to the cave, during which he or she instructs you to stay on the lighted path and to use the handrails. The cave is artfully lit to highlight geologic features of interest and minimize bat guano (feces). It is curated cave experience.

For those who want to see a cave in its natural state, there’s the Wild Cave Tour. The list of requirements to go on the wild cave tour is extensive, but the most obvious one is that you have to physically fit through a concrete box in the courtyard—and mentally handle doing so—in order to make sure you can navigate the small openings on the tour. No uplighting or handrails on the Wild Cave Tour, friends. Instead, tiny crawlspaces, slime, mud, cold, and damp. But the views and experience are life-changing.

God’s faithfulness is a lot like cave exploration. There are times when we know we can trust him as though he’s a park ranger guiding us on a cave tour with handrails. We trust God, but only because we can see what is up ahead, we know where the elevator is located, and we know there is a time limit to the tour. It’s another level of commitment altogether to believe God is faithful when we can’t see beyond our own feeble headlamp.

David had the same questions you and I have about God’s faithfulness. In Psalm 22, we read about him crying out to God. He feels abandoned and that God has not heard his cries of suffering. His stress is not named, but we can tell it is severe. Then, in verses three through five, we hear David remind himself of what has happened in the past: “But you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. Our ancestors trust in you; they trusted, and you rescued them. They cried to you and were set free; they trusted in you and were not disgraced” (Ps. 22:3-5 CSB).

David continues to cry out to God for relief. He details his pain and suffering at the hands of others. Then he reminds himself that God knew him as a tiny babe. One more time, David cries out to God, begging for mercy. Finally, he changes his tune, from one of pain and suffering to one of celebrating God’s faithfulness.

Psalm 22 concludes with David proclaiming that future generations would remember God’s faithfulness and praise his holy name. We don’t know that God fixed David’s particular situation at the time of the writing of that psalm; perhaps he didn’t. But what we do know is that David used examples of God’s faithfulness in the past to comfort and secure himself in the knowledge that God would remain faithful to him that specific time of trouble.

Perhaps you think that kind of faithfulness can only happen in the Old Testament. Maybe you’re asking, “How can I know, like David did, that God will be faithful?” There are four ways we can remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness.

First, think back to times when God has been faithful in your life. Write them down as a tangible sign of his faithfulness in your own story.

Second, go outside. There are signs of God’s faithfulness throughout his creation. The sun came up this morning and will set this evening, which means God is faithful in the very functions of our solar system. The birds build nests and hatch young, which means God is faithful in the animal kingdom. The trees bud and leaf out, and the leaves conduct chemistry, which means God is faithful in the plant kingdom. God has not forgotten the sun, the bird, or the tree. And he has not forgotten you.

The third way we can be assured of God’s faithfulness in our lives is to see it in the lives of others. Maybe you come from a family of faith, and stories of God’s faithfulness have been passed down to you. Use them as reminders that he will continue to be faithful. If you don’t have a tradition of faith in your family’s story, do not despair. We can all borrow stories of God’s faithfulness to others! For inspiration, may I suggest the books Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom as examples of God’s faithfulness through tremendous trials.

And finally, we can see God’s faithfulness in the lives of others in the Scriptures. If I had to give a one-sentence definition of the Bible, it would be this: the Bible is the story of God’s faithfulness. From the creation of Adam to John’s vision in the Book of Revelation, the Bible is filled with God being faithful to his people. We can read the Scriptures and see that God is faithful even if you run away (Moses), even if you kill someone (David), and even if you deny him three times (Peter).

When I go on the Wild Cave Tour and see the hidden caves for myself, how do I know I will make it through? I know because I went through the concrete box in the courtyard. If I made it through that box, I will make it through the cave. Our stories, the very existence of nature, and the stories of others are like the concrete box of faithfulness.

God was faithful then.

He is faithful now.

We can trust him to be faithful in the future.

Annie Carlson is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.

Photograph © Rabih Shasha, used with permission