Great is Thy Faithfulness
I grew up on hymns and while I thoroughly enjoy a lot of the new worship music that is coming out today there is still a special place in my heart for the hymns that I grew up on. Today was one of those nostalgic days where I just wanted hymns.
It’s days like today when I am transported back to my childhood church, standing on the pew, and snuggled tightly in between my mom and my dad. I can still hear my mom’s beautiful soprano voice carrying out above all the others. To me, it was the most beautiful voice in the world. Oh, how I miss hearing her sing!
One thing that I did not appreciate at the time was hearing those same hymns coming through my bedroom wall at five o’clock in the morning while she was getting ready for work. That too I miss now, but then it was an annoyance. I didn’t understand it then but now I do. She needed to be reminded of who she was working for. She needed to be reminded of God’s great faithfulness.
Today I needed to be reminded of the same thing, so I put on that hymn and I cried out a liquid offering to my God. It seems I’ve been doing that a lot lately—praying in tears more than words. While I was praying God prompted me to look back over His faithfulness.
Soon after I began following Jesus, I began journaling. At the time of this writing, I am working on my tenth prayer journal. What started as a lifeline that I clung to desperately for sanity has become a joy and when I look at all of our history stacked up beside each other it does something to my heart—I am reminded that I am known and seen and loved and how far we have come together.
Today I needed to be reminded, so I looked back over the entries from the date closest to this one from each year. They started with Joe struggling to stay sober and me feeling ignored and rejected by him, to being terrified to speak in front of the church about pornography and sex addiction, to us being told we needed to start looking for another home, and Joe struggling with his own pornography addiction. In between, there were revelations and mountaintop moments as well as stumbles and regrets. Which brings me to yesterday, an entry with parts washed away in tears, gone forever from the pages but saved in a bottle by my God.
The thing this history reminds me of is that my God is faithful. That no matter how dire the circumstance looked He saw me through. All of those old worries and trials are victories now that He uses to bring hope to others. He has worked everything together for my good, which means that this newest trial will go down in the annals of our history as well. That next year I will look back at those tear-stained pages and I will have another victory to thank my God for in their place.
“This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. [Through] the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning; Great [is] Your faithfulness.”
- Lamentations 3:21-23 NKJV
God’s faithfulness is always there, like Him it is unchanging. Lamentations 3:21 is one of my favorite verses of all time! It marks a paradigm shift in Jeremiah’s thinking. Just verses before that he is lamenting about his circumstances, saying that God has “broken his teeth with gravel”, that He has removed his hope, and that his “soul sinks within him”.
But then Jeremiah recalls to mind who His God is! Nothing in his circumstances had changed but his perspective had and therefore he had hope. It’s the same way all through the psalms. There are so many examples to choose from but one of my favorites is Psalm 42:
“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again--my Savior and my God! Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you”
- Psalm 42:5-6a NLT
There are many things that we call weapons in this walk with our King: the Sword of the Spirit, worship, prayer, and I dare to add remembrance. Our feelings aren’t truth and our circumstances do not define us. The only thing that should have that right is our God. I am who He says I am regardless of if I feel like it and He is who He says He is regardless of my circumstances.
That’s the God that we serve! A God that is unchanging; a God that shows up again and again and again. A God that sees and knows and cares. He is not a God that is far off but a God that walks before us and behind us and beside us through everything. Even this…even whatever it is that you are facing. He has been faithful before and He will be faithful again.
That’s what we put our faith in. We are not called to blind faith, but a faith with our eyes fixed on the One who is faithful. He is good, He is for you, and He will do it again. So beloved, let’s take some time today to remember who our God is, no matter what you are facing our God is bigger, our God is stronger, and our God has a plan! Great is His faithfulness!
Written by Amanda Strauser
Great is Thy Faithfulness
By Thomas Chisholm
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.
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!
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love
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!
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
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!