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Great is Thy Faithfulness

                I don’t know what spoke to my soul more this week—God’s amazing faithfulness or my pitiful lack of faith.  Faith is a gift from God.  When I have great faith, I have Him to thank and not myself. 
                I guess that is why I am so amazed by my lack of faith and so comforted by witnessing how little effect it has on God’s faithfulness to me.  Just this week I experienced an answer to prayer that I have been praying for over the last six years.  God even gave me a verse to go along with my prayer—it was a promise of what He would do.  Over the six years I claimed that promise and found assurance in it when nothing looked promising—even the opposite was happening.
                God can make bold promises like that because He knows the future.  So on the days that I became indifferent or unhopeful, it didn’t sway God.   He is faithful.  Paul said it best: if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13).  This quality of God is one He so longs to see in me.  Jesus constantly lamented the lack of faith He saw in His disciples.  Oh, what we miss out on by neglecting the gift of faith He longs to give.
                The point of my lesson this week amplifies God’s goodness.  His complete faithfulness led me to experience the immense joy of living for a faithful God!  My own unfaithfulness illumines His awesome faithfulness.
                I’m not encouraging you to be less faithful, rather to consider the faithfulness of God in His expressions of love and care for us.  He gives us air to breathe, seasons to break up the monotony, birds to sing over the traffic, wind to blow in new breezes.  All of this is evidence of His faithfulness, even when we do not notice all His goodness to us.
                Celebrating God’s faithfulness to me makes me desire to be more faithful.  I want to face the impossible challenges with determined faith that all will be well.  I want to live each day in complete confidence in my faithful God.
                Great is Thy Faithfulness was my husband’s favorite hymn.  He never second guessed where all the goodness in his life came from.  He saw himself as undeserving of the undeterred faithfulness of God in His life.  When I saw my years’ long prayer answered, my heart sang out this hymn to God.  Does your soul sing these lyrics?  Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not. As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. 
                What new mercies do you see each morning?  How do they remind you of His great faithfulness?
Copyright © 2013.  Deborah R. Newman.  www.teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.

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