But the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness. Galatians 5:22-23

A number of years ago when we were living in Mongolia, our American pastor prayed for a young gal’s arm to be made whole. It was in a permanently bent position. He prayed with all his might and began to tug lightly on the arm. He continued to pray but nothing seemed to be happening. He opened his eyes, released the arm, and gave the girl a shoulder hug with these words, “I don’t know why God doesn’t heal you. I just don’t know why.” By now there were tears in his eyes.

The girl came back to church the next week and the next, and every week after as far as I can remember. It would have been easy to just give up on this thing called Christianity. After all, it was a foreign religion to the Mongolians and many in her family were calling her back to their religion, Buddhism. It would have been easy to turn away and never come back, to become bitter because God didn’t heal her. But she didn’t.

But she didn’t.

The Spirit of God within her was working and giving her faith despite her ailment. For this girl, it wasn’t about getting healed, as important as that was. It was about continuing to serve the Creator of the Universe even when He doesn’t do what you want.

That’s faithfulness.