Cultivating Faithfulness

"Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness." -Psalm 37:3

This verse has kept coming back to me over the past few weeks, and I am starting to take a hint that the Lord wants me to learn what it means to cultivate faithfulness.  Other translations say: befriend faithfulness, feed on faithfulness, find safe pasture, feed securely.  And I wonder what in the world these things have to do with each other!  I have found myself turning these phrase over and over again in my head trying to grasp their fullness and depth.  Though I never seem to get there, I think I'm learning! 

It starts to make more sense to me when I look at the Hebrew (a language, by the way, that I know nothing about... but thanks to blueletterbible.org and my Key Word Study Bible I can get away with pretending like I do).  To cultivate here means to shepherd, tend to, pasture, graze, feed, to guard, to care for.  The word for faithfulness has to do with steadiness, firmness, security, certainty.  It only takes me an instant to notice that I am none of these things!  Ugh...  rather I am unsteady, unstable, and uncertain.  And overwhelmingly so these days.  But not long after that I realize that God is ALL of these things.  And my first thought when I make that statement about God is... "Amen!"  And it is a beautiful thing that I am prompted to say that word, because that is the very word that faithfulness in this verse is derived from.  When I say, "Amen!"  I am saying I confirm that, it is solid, it is steady, it is a trustworthy statement.

I remember the first day after my surgery and the nurse told me it was time to get up and take a walk down the hall.  I was shocked.  In my mind that was impossible.  My core muscles (aka: my abs), which provide the stability for every thing else, had been sliced open not 12 hours earlier.  YOU MUST BE CRAZY!  And yet they got me out of the bed and I walked with my mom on one side and my friend Ginnie on the other.  By all means I felt unsteady, unstable, and uncertain in my ability to walk.  But with the security of my mom and my friend on either side I did it.  And I felt safe.  In that moment my trust was in their ability and not in my own.

So here I am now in my spiritual life and my daily life attempting to cultivate - tend to, care for, give attention to, feed on - such dependence on God.  "The Lord's lovingkindness indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning;  Great is Your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'Therefore I have hope in Him.'  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.  It is good that He waits silently for the salvation of the Lord."  -Lamentations 3: 22-26

Here are some things that I hope will help me along with these things this year:
- One Year Bible Reading Plan:  I have attempted this multiple times (usually every January) and never get through it!  I hope this year will be the year!  A woman from my church told me about an app available for my iPhone that reads it aloud to me.
- Memory Moleskin:  I tried to memorize the book of Philippians last year and only got through the first chapter.  I'm trying again this year with the help of this system.  I made mine with a bigger notebook than the one this guy uses.
- Systematic Theology:  Oh yes, I am trying to tackle this book this year!  My thoughts so far?  It is way more accessible and relevant than I expected a book like this to be.  It's been awesome.