GREAT FAITHFULNESS
GREAT FAITHFULNESS
The other day at the spa, a song was playing, while Dede was having her pedicure done. It was “The Steadfast love of the LORD never ceases”. As it got to the part that said “Great is thy faithfulness O LORD” her attention was suddenly piqued. And she began to wonder why the faithfulness of God was described as great. Scripture could have simply said that God is faithful. And well, that might have made enough sense. But the bible says this: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
As Dede began to ponder and meditate on this, some things became very clear to her.
God’s faithfulness is not because He hears and answers her prayers or because He blesses her and her family. God’s faithfulness is His very nature. That is who He is.
Dede thought then, that if it was the case that some of her prayer requests were not granted as it had happened oftentimes in the past, it did not take away from the faithfulness of God one bit. This was really deep.
Then Dede began to understand what happened at calvary. It all became so alarmingly clear.
When on the cross, Jesus had cried in anguish out of a feeling of abandonment : “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Mark 15:34 KJV, that was the faithfulness of God in action. The very nature of God, His faithfulness, will always influence His actions.
The action above, which was that God abandoned Jesus on the cross was because being faithful He could not change. Being faithful is that He remains constant. If His nature then is that He is holy and cannot behold sin, there was no way He would have been able to look at Jesus, as He hung on the cross because Jesus was bearing the sins of the world at that moment.
The faithful nature of God meant that He could not change His mind even though it was His only Son Jesus on that cross. And that is why His faithful nature cannot hold sin against us any more as those sins have already been judged in Jesus on the cross.
His faithful nature will also not allow His promises to go unfulfilled in our lives and this is why it is very important to be updated on what His Word is saying about any situation we find ourselves.
The bible tells us this: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV.
Therefore, if we ever find ourselves going through any challenges we should look for a similar experience in the scriptures and see how God sorted it out.
Leah for example, suffered rejection from Jacob her husband. (who preferred her younger sister Rachel, to her) O! The agony, the pain, the shame, and the trauma of that. Then she gave up trying to please man or to win his affection and she turned to praise God. “Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “This time I will praise the LORD”; so she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.” Genesis 29:35 GNT And God compensated her with two of her sons becoming the projenitors of priests (Levi) and kings (Judah) amongst the Israelites. What an honour.
Now Dede understood that the faithfulness of God meant that He will do exactly what He says He will do.
The question I ask today is this: Do we know what God says He will do? If we do then great. Let us stand on that Word. Remind Him of that Word and then remind Him of His faithfulness. It is not like He forgot His very own nature but sometimes we need to remind ourselves that God is faithful. If however, you do not know what God is saying about you or your situation, in His Word, then it’s time to search it out so that you can stand on it.
The faithful nature of our God means He will stand by what He says.
No matter the cost.
NOW THAT IS GREAT FAITHFULNESS!
OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©