pondering God's faithfulness

"Great is thy faithfullness, O God my Father..." all throughout the day I've had this song playing through my head. I sat at the piano, a gentle coolness blowing through the open door, where the snowy blossoms of the neighbor's pear-trees glowed softly in the blue dusk.

As I played through the song, I was reminded of the worries of the day and was washed once more with the beauty of God's faithfulness. The words to this song, written by an ordinary man named Thomas Obadiah Chisholm, readjusted my focus once more to the cross, to what God has promised and the hope I have in him. "Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not"; what a comforting reminder! No matter what I do, not matter how selfish I am or how little I pray, God doesn't change....and he doesn't change in his love towards me. How liberating to know that my salvation does not depend on my spiritual accomplishments and strength, but on his unchanging grace.

Paul said, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

All too often, I'm afraid, I do "set aside the grace of God", telling myself how much I must do to really win God's approval. I think to myself, "I hardly read my Bible as much as I should, I know I don't pray enough, and I don't really feel all that close to God....what must God think of me."

Oh, but how sweet to know that my salvation and God's opinion of me is not determined by anything I do....if it were, how hopeless I would be! But it's not- God does not look at me and see all my faults, all the ways I fail. No- he see's the righteousness of Christ, and that is how he judges me. God is delighted in me- not because of anything I've done to deserve it, but because of what Christ has achieved for me. How wonderful!!

This morning I was listening to a sermon on John 17 by Dan Hames- you can listen here if you have some time. He talks about the loving unity of the trinity, and how, because of what Christ did on the cross, we can enter into that unity as well. John 17:23 says:

"May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

He ends with a pertitent question that I think has alot to do with not setting aside the grace of God, like Paul said, and I think it is a question I ought to ask myself more often. That is: "Am I basing my christian identity and my feeling of security on the things I do for God, or on what Christ has done for me? Where is my assurance coming from?"

Let me end with the words of the song I played earlier this evening , the song that sweetly reminds me of God's unchanging faithfullness; not unchanging because of my faithfulness to God (nay, far from it!), but unchanging because of his grace, and his grace alone.


"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 for ever 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.

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."

-Thomas O. Chisholm