Yesterday, I met with a young pastor who leads a local congregation. If one studied our conversation they would discover a single and repeated thread in our time together – the faithfulness of God. I was reminded of something the psalmist said, “O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do” (Psalm 71: 17).

This morning, while I was writing this message, I was taken back to my childhood and what was always atop my bedstand. It was a Bible. I still have the Bible. When I went to sleep, I saw the Bible. I saw it again when I awakened in the morning. The Bible was like the faithful presence of God in my life always watching over me as I continued to grow and mature. When I failed during the day, the reminder of God’s presence in my life had a calming effect. Reminders of His presence do the same for me today.

Now, as an older saint, I have a responsibility, “Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me” (vs. 18). As we age, we bring to that time in our life a testimony detailing how a life of faith worked out in our lifetime. We speak to younger generations a testimony of God’s faithfulness over time and how His power was revealed in our lives.

What the young pastor and I talked most about in our time together was God’s faithfulness and the hope that understanding brings that will reorder our lives and reconstruct how we speak. In our different contexts, we both realized this about God, “You are faithful to your promises” (vs. 22). The Lord has proved Himself faithful in each of our lives. He was faithful to do what neither of us could do by ourselves.

Yesterday’s conversation represents what most of my one-on-one conversations sound like today. They reveal a testimony of God’s unfailing love. That message creates an atmosphere of hope that crafts the content of our testimony about the moment in which we live and what will come. Those expressions of hope mark all our lives as something exceptional in a world where expressions of real hope are few and far between.