The Gift of Faithfulness

Psalm 146:6b “The Lord who remains faithful forever.”

[You, Lord, are the persistent God of Hope, forever pouring joy and peace into our lives as we trust in you (Rom. 15:13)–so that our lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that we may live lives worthy of you.

For this I praise you, Lord Jesus, I exalt you, heavenly Father, I honor you, Holy Spirit, for your consistent, continual commitment to Truth, to Righteousness, to your Promises and, most importantly, to your rich and beautiful Character.

In the garden of Eden you promised a Savior who would crush Satan’s head. You prepared the way for His coming, choosing Abraham, protecting him and his off-spring through many years of danger, oppression and difficulty. Through Joseph you saved Judah from whence came the Christ.

And at the right time you arrived, Lord Jesus: in weakness and vulnerability, a helpless babe born to inexperienced parents in a dirty and sickness-filled society where infant mortality rate was high and enemies abounded.

You lived among sin-warped people, in evil systems, under oppression by Rome and rejection by your own. You willingly suffered unjust condemnation, torture, death and seeming defeat that you might save all who were willing to come into your shelter of faithful forgiveness and family, of love and new life.

You are the ultimate in faithfulness and therefore we can trust you fully each day to carry us through whatever will come, granting us opportunity to work with you in your plans and to give you honor by offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving in each difficulty, disappointment and discouragement.

Help us to take up your out-poured grace, Lord Jesus, to live in the light of your love and to rest in the fact of your faithfulness, so you may be honored today before all human beings around us.

Psalm 11:7b “His countenance beholds the upright.”

[You, Lord, in your love and goodness, consistently look after us, your children–we who now stand in the righteousness of Christ. You are aware of every event that comes to us, you filter out what is truly evil and harmful, and you have equipped us to deal with whatever you allow into our lives.

You have qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light! You are carrying us forward on to glory, honor and praise as we respond to your direction in faith! Your love is wonderful and rich, pure and powerful, and it is a great privilege to live in it!]

Psalm 146:5 “Blessed is the man whose help is the God of Jacob”

[You work with us, as you worked with that rebellious rascal Jacob. You are patient and persistent, providing consequences to bring us up short, penetrating our lives at the right time with conviction and wisdom, and pointing us the way to full surrender],

“[Blessed is the man] whose hope is the Lord his God”

[Jacob kept calling you, “the God of my father” rather than his own God. It took a whole lifetime of self-imposed suffering, fear and loss before Jacob, on his death bed, finally bowed before you and worshiped you as “my God,” making you his personal hope. May we not wait so long to surrender! ]

Picture from internet

Psalm 11:5b “But the wicked and the one who loves violence, His [God’s] soul hates.”

[Here is one of those seeming paradoxes of the Bible: God loves all yet hates the wicked. Here are three possible understandings among several, all of them true:

–He hates what they do, but loves them as His creatures;

–He loves them, but when they refuse to come under His protection by surrendering to Christ, they fall under His hatred for sin;

–or here He is speaking of Satan and his hoard of demons.

The certainty is that, in God’s character there are no contradictions: He hates sin and will punish it yet found an extremely excruciating and expensive one way to redeem sinners within this context.

Psalm 11:6 “Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.”

[As part of your plan to eliminate evil, you, Lord God, will in your justice justly punish rebellious evil doers–those who refuse your gracious forgiveness and instead love violence, those who hate what is good, those who refuse to believe you and accept Truth.

This is what you did in Sodom and Gomorrah, what you did in Canaan to those who rejected you, and what you will do to all those who refuse your offer of goodness and grace. There can be no justice without the punishment of evil.]

Help us, Lord, to walk in your way and help others avoid the judgment to come.

Yesterday ended with a dissatisfying taste, an emptiness which I tried at first to banish with reading and popcorn. But then you, Lord, led me in the right path, reminding me to praise you for this unpleasant sensation, as this emptiness was a reminder that my soul finds rest in you alone—and the right response is to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving!

Therefore I praise you now, Lord Jesus, for this emptiness that reminds me of the wonder and stability of knowing you, of being a child of the eternal living God. You give us all we need for life and godliness and I can praise you for both the pleasant and the painful, no matter what comes.

As it says in Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”

[When everything seems to fall apart, we can look away to you, Lord God, the only sure foundation in all of existence. We can rejoice in your character, rest in your love, live in your wisdom. The instability of the world only serves to highlight the surety of your character: the Lord Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever! Praise God!

Lord Jesus,

my God and Lord,

my King and Master,

my Savior and Shepherd,

you have undeservedly set us, your illogically adopted children,

in such a wide and wonderful place,

in a positive position of light and love,

of grace and goodness,

of beauty and brightness,

of care and color, like the scene below.

You have brought us into a place of belonging, where all depends on your faithfulness.

From your gracious heart is an ever-flowing spring of love that waters all relationships, washing away the stains of selfishness and shame of failure.

From your deep forgiveness-filled eyes,

from your pure, grace-giving lips,

from your powerful, health-bestowing hands,

flow the messages of acceptance, cleansing, delight and favor.

In your presence we, who deserve only eternal banishment from your presence, are dearly loved, deeply cared for, doted on and delighted in.

This is not because of anything we are or have done, but because of all you are, Lord Jesus:

the King of Grace,

the Lord of Love,

the Savior of sinners

and Ruler of Restoration.

In you all is made right, all harm is transformed, all wrong will be righted in the end.