Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are cr...

The Bliss of Knowing You are Loved by God

            There is bliss of knowing that you are loved by a real and intimate God.   I have felt that bliss. I don’t experience it all the time and sometimes it takes me a while to notice how much I miss it.   Often I come back to my senses when I read the spiritual writings of one who is explaining how great God is and I am reminded how good He is to me.               I suppose the saints stayed more connected to the bliss of God on a regular basis and missed it far less than me.   I wish I knew their secret; all I can tell you is that it is a cycle for me to find myself unaware of God for a time.   It is often a struggle to reconnect each day. What brought me to my senses recently was a huge blessing He sent my way.   This good thing literally came to me directly from the hand of God.   I didn’t even consider sharing the joy I was ...

Why Me?

              When something tragic or unexpected happens, our first question seems to be, Why me?   It’s only human to feel this way and wonder why life has got to be so hard.   God has helped me look at my unwanted circumstances with a different question.   Rather than keep the focus on my pain and ask, Why me?   I focus on Him and wonder, How can You be glorified when everything is going wrong?             Adding one more word to that question makes a huge difference spiritually and opens my soul to find so much more than just my pain.   Another way to look at life’s tragedies is, Why not me ?   Sure, we each have our own amount of personal sorrows. These are the kind of sorrows that have no answers.      We can't explain away death, cancer, rape, bankruptcy and other heartaches.   It is easier to explain...