Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

Lamentations 3:22-23 – Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Over the past year, I have awakened to this hymn and gone to sleep singing it:

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

The truth of its words have wrapped around me like a warm quilt, I'm covered in it. This year has bought so many changes in my life; things that I thought I would never see I've witnessed up close and personal. Friends have left, jobs have changed, rules have been broken, foundations overturned. God has remained the same, day in and day out. His mercy has been there, despite my actions or lack of faith. His love has carried me and saved me and comforted me time and time again. He has been faithful to me, faithful to His word. God is faithful!

Our family has experienced four deaths this year. Those who have gone on before me were trailblazers of my faith. They sacrificed, saved, worked, prayed and believed all their lives, and that river of faith flowed down to me. God was loving me and watching over me through them. He set me in their family tree, in the receiving line of their faith. He was faithful to me before I ever was.

Our family was blessed with a new life yesterday; again in his birth I see God's faithfulness. This baby's presence is a marvellous testament to God's faithfulness to all of us. We gather around him in recognition of all who came before him, in appreciation of all who will help to form him, in celebration for all that he will be.

Recently, my father experienced a massive heart attack that followed a kidney transplant. He has been in a coma over the past two and half weeks. There have been days when they told us he would not pull through, but he is still here. Although he is unable even to recognize us or speak, his testimony is being heard loud and clear, and, once again, God's faithfulness is evident. As I reminisce about my childhood at my father's bedside, I realize, even more, how faithful God has been to him and to us. For whatever we've been through before this, it has brought us to where we are right now, and we're with God and with each other. Who could ask for more?

As your day progresses, think about God's faithfulness to you. Think about where you were, about where you are, think about the things that God has brought you through. You'll realize when everything else changes, our Lord stays the same, His love is more constant than the sun rising, His grace more stable than the earth beneath your feet. You'll see that even though things are the way they are, you are drinking from the saucer because your cup has overflowed with His love.

Prayer:

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.
Amen.

Forward this devotional     Share this devotional on Facebook     Like PresbyCan on Facebook