"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 forever 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!
The words of this great hymn keep going through my head
as I am daily reminded of how great God's mercies have been to me. His compassions have not failed though I have
far too often been beset by anxiety! How
wonderful it is to be reminded that there is no shadow of His changing when I
often seem to be like the boat that is tossed in the wind. He gives me constant reminders in His word
and creation of His faithfulness, mercy and love.
The other day as I held my sweet grandchild, Olivia, while
reading my Bible I was becoming
distracted thinking of her congenital heart problem, her upcoming heart surgery
(hopefully October) and her need to gain more weight. I was reading in Exodus where God reminds
Moses, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing,
or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" A perfectly timed reminder to me that
God made Olivia just the way He intended her to be. And God in His infinite mercy has caused her
to start gaining weight, though it has its ups and downs.
There have been times in the last couple of months when
anxieties about my own sarcoma have risen up and threatened to overtake me, yet
even then God's Word brought me relief. I
went through a few weeks when the pain in my reconstructed hip was as severe as
it had been before the surgery convincing me that the sarcoma had returned
there. By God's grace the x-rays showed
it was simply injury from a fall I had taken and it has subsided to its normal
discomfort. Then a lump on my lower leg
grew: a lump that was presumed to be the
sarcoma. I struggled daily, not with the
sarcoma rising up, but with the thought that I would have to be taking time out
to go back to MD Anderson for biopsy and possible surgery at a time when I wanted
to be able to help with my grandbaby. God is so merciful, humbling me as He
still opened His word to me giving comfort to my soul as I struggled. I read in Psalm 94 that even David
experienced anxieties. Verses 17-19 say,
" If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the
land of silence. When I thought, 'My
foot slips,' your steadfast love, O
Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer
my soul." Besides the peace that
gave me, the Lord was indeed my help causing the scans to show no obvious
progression and allowing the decision to be made to do nothing until a recheck in
three months. Also, in nothing short of
God's providence the nodules that have been seen in my lung scans for about two
years now have remained unchanged in size. In my vision, which had mistakenly been
focused on me instead of Him, I had not even foreseen those outcomes as a
possibility. Oh me of little faith! God
is gracious and merciful!
Recently there has been a great deal of focus on
persecution of Christians throughout the world.
That too has caused me anxiety and daily it greatly burdens my heart,
but even as I think on that I am given hope in the Word. As I read about the plagues in Egypt, I made
note with wonder that God caused flies to be in every Egyptian home to a point
they could not escape them, yet the Bible says not one fly was found in
Goshen. To think that God controlled the
flies so that not one entered the land of His people is amazing and humbling. To know that He put Pharaoh in place just to
show forth His power is a reminder that none of the persecution happens without
His knowledge and permission. As I think
of Christians fleeing their homes with only what they can carry or being
imprisoned, and I think of what comfort God's Word has been to me, I pray that
these brothers and sisters will be reminded of Scripture to give them renewed
hope and comfort.
As I've seen how applicable God's Word is in all my
anxieties I am convicted to saturate myself more in my todays as I don't know what tomorrow will
bring. How sad it would be to be faced
with a time when I might not have the written Word and not be able to recall
passages and stories of God's care. It
makes me determined to go back and memorize again chapters that I had down when
younger that have slipped from my mind.
I am so grateful that God brings His words to mind when troubles beset
my heart.
Paul Tripp, When
you’re struggling with anxiety, Jesus tells you to look around at creation.
Embedded in the physical world are constant theological reminders that God
doesn’t abandon the work of his hands. The birds of the air, the flowers of the
field, and countless other living organisms point to the loving care of God.
If God would care
that much for birds and flowers, how much more would he care for those made in
his image? If God feeds and clothes animals and plants without an eternal soul,
how much more will he provide for those covered by the costly blood of his Son?
You have reason to rest because creation preaches to you a gospel of divine
faithfulness.
