A devotional I read this month from the book, Sanctuary by David Jeremiah spoke to my heart. I don't know about you, But I very often focus more on my feelings than on God's faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." From the devotional David Jeremiah says: "When Thomas Chisholm wrote the words to the song, "Great is Thy Faithfulness, he made a tiny error. The song is based on the above scripture. He wrote"Morning by morning, new mercies I see." But the point of this passage is that the prophet Jeremiah did not see any new mercies. He didn't see a thing. He had no visible evidence of God's mercies at all. Morning by morning brought horror and pain and dread--not new mercies. Jeremiah was not saying, " I trust You because I understand everything that is going on in my life." He was saying, "I trust You because You are God and You cannot fail. And I know You cannot lie."
The devotional goes on to say: "There are times when life is not easy, when it is hard to believe in the faithfulness of God. We try to hold on and find out what God is up to, and sometimes He seems to have disappeared. We listen to the words of the enemy who tries to pull us away from what we know and cause us to operate on how we feel. God is faithful whether you feel like He is or not, whether you think He is or not, whether you observe His faithfulness or not, God, who cannot lie, is faithful."
Life is hard for all of us at different times. Many mornings I haven't felt the Lord's mercies and love and have been tempted to give in to despair and discouragement. Like Jeremiah I have a choice to trust God and believe that He loves me and is always faithful. A. W. Tozer describes the faithfulness of God so well. He says: "Upon God's faithfulness rests our whole hope of future blessedness...only as we have complete assurance that He is faithful, may we live in peace and look forward with assurance to the life to come."
God has certainly been faithful to me. Jesus has shown me over and over that only He can take our broken hearts and bring healing. That healing continues to happen for me as I run into His arms over and over by reading, re-reading and believing His precious promises from His Word. I know I've said it often, but ONLY JESUS, not family, friends, work, money, clothes, food, sports, vacations or any other thing can meet the deepest needs of our hearts and give us peace and rest. I still miss Ty so much, but I've noticed lately that I don't say "Jesus, this is so hard" as often. I told my son, Wyatt, recently that I no longer feel like a little lost sheep because I feel so at home in the arms of Jesus. He has filled the hole in my heart that Ty left with more of Himself. I am finding that more of Jesus is more than enough to give me exactly what I need for the next minute, the next hour, the next day. Does that mean that life is easy and I always feel like rejoicing--definitely not--but I can find rest, peace and comfort in my faithful Savior and friend, Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:3 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort."
Let Jesus love you and remind you of His faithfulness as you listen to this song, "Hold Me." It may make you want to dance! I'm sure it will make you smile:) Enjoy!! Let Jesus hold you today!
I guess, Keva, as I am learning my Christian walk, that to put it simply: Jesus is all I need. Reading the Word of God confirms it. How do I know this? Because I am told in my mind (by the enemy) that I should stop reading God's Word, and stop praying - "What good does it do? Did you not read that before? Things have not changed, look, they are worse." (And many more negative thoughts.) But what I find missing in myself is that I don't always run to Jesus...I run to "things" as you aluded to. Even Godly things can be wrong by themselves without relationship with Christ Jesus. Prayer, reading the Word, fellowship...it means I don't rely on one of these in and of themselves...it means to me that I cannot become 'self-sufficient'. Which, to be honest, is that which I find myself battling the most. But the combination of things is what is important; like Paul and Barnabas in the dungeon, they spoke of Christ, were persecuted, thrown into prison and even though they could not see Christ Jesus but because of their relationship with Him they praised God (thus incorporating the Word of God, prayer and fellowship) -all three together not leaning on what they saw but looking to the Glory of God for their joy. I don't quite do that; I wish to be there...such a longing in my heart...
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