What Is Loyalty!

LOYALTY!!!

I have been examining my heart and life lately thinking about where my loyalties lie in this life. Is my Loyalty to people to my family to friends to God etc. I have found myself in confusion over feelings of betrayal and lies and disrespect and how to remain loyal to people in spite of their lack of loyalty.

The church is by far the most unloyal group of people I have ever encountered. There is more mistrust and gossip in the church then there is in the secular work place and it is all in the NAME of prayer, in the name of keeping confidences etc, and yet, it is actually not as Jesus sees loyalty. 

He laid out in scripture how to handle conflict and how to be loyal and yet every church I have ever been in, EVERY church, has gotten this WRONG dead wrong. I have yet to encounter one single act of discord to be handled the way Jesus would. Every pastor gets it wrong every elder and deacon gets it wrong and WHY? if we the church are suppose to know the WORD why and how do we continually get this wrong? simple answer "everyone wants what they want, TO BE RIGHT" even if it means being disloyal to a fellow brother or sister. No one wants to FACE people down and work through situations they would rather gossip behind ones back and bring others into a situation they should have never been invited to. 

Heck even the world expects loyalty. Take Rick Bronson, for instance, who was a driver at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Southern California. He was dismissed from his employment for drinking a Pepsi. Although, the Teamsters Local 848 says Bronson was fired for being a union activist. However, most would agree if you are selling one product it would be bad advertisement and a lack of loyalty to use a competing product. HMMMMM!!!! sounds a little like churches when another person visits another church or leaves a church (even if for the right reasons) etc, all of a sudden its like a nasty divorce just happened and you become an outcast, when according to God's plan WE are THE CHURCH....ONE CHURCH!!!!! It was mans idea to split into all these different churches, all these different religions and church splits, and planting new churches off of splits are an example of a lack of loyalty!!!! Example: Trading sheep, as they say in the church world, is a perfect example of LACKING LOYALTY! Why would you want to build a church on disgruntled church people when there is a lost world screaming to be saved!!!! 

Ruth presents us with a true example of loyalty. She not only says what she will do, but then lives it out. The Dictionary defines a loyal person as one who is faithful to those persons, ideals, etc. that one is under obligation to defend, support, or be loyal to. It defines loyalty as the quality, state, or instance of being loyal; faithfulness or faithful adherence to a person, government, cause, duty, and etc.

If the world expects loyalty and faithfulness, how much more should God expect loyalty and faithfulness from those who follow Him? Would God describe you as being a loyal follower? Or would God describe you as someone who is disloyal by your actions of supporting the enemies of God?

Ruth made a statement of loyalty and lived out her life by that statement. She meant what she said and lived like she meant it. How about you? How about me?

I am determined to no longer allow status quo in my life there are a handful of true friends we will have in a life time there are a handful of people that will actually remain loyal, most people in this life run for this hills as soon as the pressure is on or as soon as they think they cant have it their way any longer. 

I am tired of being burnt by others being disloyal and I am on a mission to carefully choose my inner circle and determined to teach my kids about loyalty - they have seen enough disloyal people in their short lives and I know God will turn it for HIS glory and use it as a tool to strengthen their resolve to be loyal to God, family and friends like Ruth. In fact my youngest actually had Ruth 1:16 tattooed on her as a reminder of loyalty.....

Hope you are a loyal person and examining your words against your actions....you'll be surprised if you examine this how revealing things will be....

be blessed

But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me." - Ruth 1:16-17.