Great is Thy Faithfulness

Above is tiny baby Tyler's blanket. "God is faithful" as Tyler has gained two pounds in just a few short weeks. He now weighs 4lbs and they are hoping he will go home to be with his family in October.

From the Hymn: Great is Thy Faithfulness

These words are very powerful. “Great is thy faithfulness, oh God our father. There is not shadow of turning with thee. Thou changes not, thy compassions they fail not. All thou has been, thou forever will be.” “All I needed, thy hand hast provided.”
These are wonderful words to remind us of the faithfulness of God. The hymn is based on a biblical text found in Lamentations.

Jeremiah, the author of these words says this in Chapter 3, “I’m the man who’s seen affliction under the rod of God’s love. He’s driven and brought me into darkness without any light.” Verse 4, “He’s made my flesh and my skin waste away and broken my bones. He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation.” Verse 7, “He’s walled me about, so I cannot escape. He’s put heavy chains on me.” Verse 10, “He’s to me like a bear, lying in wait or like a lion in hiding, he led me off the road and tore me to pieces. He bent his bow and set me up as a target for his arrows. He drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver and I’ve become a laughing stalk of all the people.” Verse 16, “He’s made my teeth grind on gravel, he made me cower in ashes, my soul is bereft of peace.” “I have forgotten what happiness is.” Well after all that description of misery he comes to verse 41 and there is that transitional, constructive word, “but.” After all of this suffering, “but” is called to mind and therefore, we hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.”

Jeremiah is in deep trouble. “This chapter does for happiness what Britney Spears does for modesty.” It just about destroys it; it is a very sad, sad chapter. If you think you’ve got problems, just listen to these complaints of this prophet from the early centuries. The highlight of the verse, the passage, is there in verse 21. The good news, “God is a faithful God.” And it’s that reminder that we have for us today.

We know what faithfulness is, we’re expected to be faithful—God expects us to have those qualities of faithfulness, dependability, reliability. We are to tell the truth, we’re to keep our word; we’re to be dependable and reliable. The good news is we can take all of those qualities of faithfulness expected in us and others and apply them to God perfectly. He is faithful, He is reliable, He is dependable. He keeps his word, He never breaks His promise. He is consistent. That’s good news; the God we worship is a faithful God.

In the hymn that Thomas Chisholm wrote he says faithfulness of God is expressed in several ways. It is expressed in the fact that God’s love never ends. He is faithful, in the third chapter in verse 22 it says, “His compassions never fail.” God loves us so much that He sent his son. Scripture says God loved us so much that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That means His love is immeasurable, it cannot be described adequately. It certainly cannot be presented in human terms as to its limitations.

David said it this way, “God’s love reaches to the heavens.” He may not have known about light years of measurement, but he did know as he looked up that even the sky at night and in the daylight could not contain the love of God. It can’t be measured.

God doesn’t change, we can trust Him, He is faithful. Some of us have experienced some type of trouble, disappointments or tragedies in our life because somebody changed, somebody we trusted, maybe a husband or a wife, maybe a devoted friend we thought we could depend on. Something happened they changed, they betrayed us, they turned on us, their faithfulness was gone and we were crushed cause somebody changed, faithful friend, faithful loved one, they changed—but “not God”.
The truth of this passage is that “God will never let us down”, “He will never change”, “we can always depend on Him”. “We can anchor our life in Him, we can trust Him”—“He does not change”.