God has expressed His faithfulness to me in so many tangible ways through the years. When I was told by a college professor they saw absolutely no potential in me to be a song writer, a friend told me he saw potential in me and he encouraged me to write the songs that were in my heart in spite of what the experts said.
When I was trapped in sexual sin and my self-focused point of view led me right up to the edge of the ledge of taking my own life, my friend talked me down from that ledge.
Most of the time, I felt so condemned by Christians due to the nature of my particular sin I felt there was no way out. The more I tried to ‘be good’, the more I failed. The more I failed, the more I felt like just giving up and giving in. My friend did the most amazing thing. He kept helping me get back up from where I had fallen - and kept pointing me to Jesus. It was the incredible loving patience of my friend who saw past my immaturity and utter selfishness and saw what and who Jesus wanted me to be.
So much healing came into my life during the next few years that God gave me a wife…and continued to demonstrate His faithfulness to us in precious and undeniable ways. There were times during the early years of my marriage to Melinda that we did not know if we would have enough money to buy groceries on more than one occasion…only to ask God for provision and wake up the next morning to find bags of groceries left by some caring person on our doorstep.
When we were in a dry and weary wilderness of life, another person reached out to us and loved us into a place of healing that quenched our thirst to such a degree that hundreds of songs began to pour out of our life and spread out to the entire world.
What I am trying to say is simply this: God is faithful. Sometimes we don’t see just how faithful He is because we forget to see life’s circumstances from His point of view…like a friend ‘coincidentally’ being there at just the right time…
God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9
"Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus John 15:13 NASB
Let’s take a few minutes right now and think about times in our lives when God has proven His faithfulness to us during the span of our life to date…and then, let’s express our gratitude to God for His faithfulness and love and presence with us each and every step along the way through the journeys of our lives.
Remember my misery and my homelessness, the wormwood and bitterness.
My soul certainly remembers,
And is bent over within me.
I recall this to my mind,
Therefore I wait.
The LORD'S acts of mercy indeed do not end,
For His compassions do not fail.
[They] are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:19-23 NASB
God is faithful. God is good. God loves us beyond our ability to even fully comprehend the depth and healing nature of that love. Let’s simply live each day from the viewpoint of God’s faithfulness in spite of our temptations, in spite of our wounds, in spite of our failures, in spite of what others think, in spite of how difficult the journey may get. Gratefulness looks good on you and me. And it does the heart good. What I’m trying to say is simply this: God is faithful…Be grateful…
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this teaching and to hear the song, Great Is Your Faithfulness, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/great-is-your-faithfulness-1643130032/
Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/03/29/05/12/worship-4088561_1280.jpg