Luke 12:42–44: “The Lord replied, ‘Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his household servants to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds at work when he returns. I tell you the truth, the master will put him in charge of all his possessions.’”

What I’m interested in in this passage is the word faithful. Paul says somewhere else that “it is required in stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). And elsewhere we see Jesus saying, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10).

Faithfulness is a powerful word. It means the ability to keep on going. The picture that comes to mind when I think of faithfulness is the ability to repeat the same thing, repeat the same thing, repeat the same thing.

And what is this servant supposed to repeat here? This faithful and wise servant has been put in charge of the master’s household servants, and he is supposed to be faithful—just keep doing it, just keep repeating the same thing.

The powerful picture of faithfulness we see is in the wilderness, where the people were fed regularly for forty years. There was no failure—there was a break on the Sabbath, but there was regular feeding (Exodus 16). That is a picture of God’s faithfulness. And look at what happened in the wilderness: one time the Israelites are complaining, they are distracted with other things, they are grumbling—but God’s faithfulness was exhibited in the daily provision of sustenance, the daily provision of food.

So I am talking to you, a servant of God, that a quality that is vital is faithfulness. What that means is: you are just doing it. You are not looking for the immediate gratification from it. You are not saying, “You people I have been preaching to, you have not ‘sown into my anointing.’”

Why? Because your eyes are gazing on the Master, and when He is going to come back with the promise: “I tell you the truth, the master will put him in charge of all his possessions.” That is what you are aiming for. That is what is fueling your faithfulness.

Your faithfulness cannot be fueled by people's reactions, responses or validation. Jesus said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about… My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (John 4:32, 34). That has to be your driving force. That has to be your priority. That has to be what you are aiming for.

Remember: faithfulness is the routineness of just delivering the word. The routineness of just serving the body of Christ. The routineness of it. The almost “boring” nature of it.

Look at how the children of Israel complained: “This manna is boring” (Numbers 11:6, in essence). “We want things to be spiced up. We want things spiced up.” The servant here does not need things spiced up. He is just faithful. Just repetition. Just regularity. Just doing it. He did it yesterday; he is going to do it today. He is faithful; he is regular; he is dependable.

You can close your eyes and know that things are being taken care of because that servant has the quality of faithfulness.

And do not say to yourself, “That person does not have the quality of faithfulness.” The message today is coming to you. You are a servant of God. A quality is faithfulness. A quality is the ability not to be distracted by what that person is doing, by what is happening in that place. You just cannot be that person who is distracted. You cannot be that person.

Here, the servant is not being praised for being innovative. The reward is for faithfulness.

God bless you. See you later.