Faithfulness

Originally posted on 05/1/11 on Sudden Inspirations. I needed the message again today.

As I stood in the morning worship service on May 1, I was suddenly struck with a desire to thank God for His faithfulness. Not to thank him for the many blessings he's bestowed on me, nor for all that he has done for me over the course of my life – the healings, the comfort, the financial blessings, the urgent prayer requests he's answered. No, I simply felt it necessary to thank him for his faithfulness.

It was a new notion for me. Of course, God is faithful. I know that! The Bible is filled with statement after statement of this. But knowing that God is faithful is something I take for granted. I don't think I've ever thanked him for that.

You see, life is hard. It is filled with broken things – dreams, hopes, desires. Broken hearts, broken lives, broken relationships, broken toys. We get wounded. Life hurts. Things don't go our way. Life is unfair. People suffer and die. Life is cruel. It is a challenge at times to even get out of bed because facing life is like walking into the flames. We are consumed by the shear effort. Our minds scream at the searing pain of living each day. Life is unbelievably hard.

I wish I could tell you it gets easier. It doesn't. It gets harder. When you realize that your time is running out you begin to think about what you should have done that you didn't do. It could have made such a difference! And you stare into the mirror with a realization that you can't change it. Life is excruciatingly painful.

I've spent a long time attempting to reconcile this in my mind. Why? Why does it hurt so very much to live. There are all kinds of philosophical explanations and I will be frank in telling you. I don't care. Pick your view and put it in your pocket. It will not change a thing. Life will still be hard. And some times it will be so hard you won't think you can make it another day. And there are some who won't.

I am one of those people who keep clinging to meaning. I look for it in every single thing. I can't settle for a pat answer. It all means something. I get mad with God at times and we have some heated discussions. When Jerry died I dare say my questions got harder and my anger fiercer. I could find no answers for the cruelty of life, for the pain and misery that seemed to come with every day. I began to break beneath the onslaught. My mind at times simply couldn't keep up with all the terrible things pouring into it. The walls we erect to keep horror at bay crumbled and there were times I feared to go to sleep. I did not want to live another day in this pain but I didn't want to die either. And when I saw how easy dying was, I was shocked to my soul. Living is so very hard. Dying is simple.

For the last two years I have repeatedly read a particular passage of scripture and hung onto it as if it were a lift preserver. Perhaps it was. I even have a bookmark in the section so I can find it immediately. I don't suppose anyone else would see any comfort in it. Some would call it depressing. The author was a man who had a right to be depressed. He was threatened with death several times by his own people, thrown into a dungeon, rescued only to be taken hostage, and eventually killed in a foreign land. It doesn't get much worse than that. But he tells a story that is eerily familiar.

Lamentations 3:1-41
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.........................
..................For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

When I fail, He never fails. When I turn away, He never walks away. When I throw up my hands in defeat, He never gives up. When I am consumed by life and can't remember where I am, He never forgets me. When I have reached the end of the road and simply want to lie down and rest, He never grows tired.

(Deu 7:9) Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

(Psa 36:5) Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
(Psa 89:1) I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

(Psa 89:2) For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

(Psa 119:90) Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
(Isa 25:1) O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

(Lam 3:23) They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

I am so thankful that God is faithful.