Our God's faithfulness is everlasting. In my own life, I can reflect on everything I've been through and see His hand in all of it. Hearing of my peers' personal stories about God's faithfulness in their own lives offer even more encouraging proof of His love for us. But perhaps the greatest reminder of God's faithfulness is the story of the Israelite nation.
Time and time again in the Bible, the Israelites face outside pressure to worship other gods and adulterate themselves from the only true God; the One that loves them immensely. Every time they hit an all time low, they cry out to God, and He continues to rescue them. He may be upset with them for a moment and refuse to acknowledge their suffering, but He is far from distant. Rather, He allows them to recognize their wrongdoing through consequence before rescuing them once more.
Perhaps one of my favorite stories in the Bible is that of Hosea. Called by God to marry a prostitute, he showers love and affection on her. You would think that she, in the presence of such a loving and affectionate man, would warmly return his love in gratitude. Instead, she continues to sleep with other men. But instead of leaving her, like the law of Moses says Hosea legally can, he instead continues to stay by her side. This broken, one-sided relationship parallels that of God and the Israelite nation, and He makes clear that He won't leave Israel, even though He has every right to.
"How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart; My compassion is stirred! I will not vent the full fury of My anger; I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One among you; I will not come in a rage." - Hosea 11:8-9 (HCSB)
Even though we daily fail God, He daily renews His covenant to us. When we cry out to Him from the Pit, which we could fall into of our own sinfulness, we can trust that He will rescue us.
Lamentations 3:22-24 says: "Because of the Lord's faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say: the Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him." (HCSB)
And Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:13 one of my all time favorite verses: "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself." (HCSB)
Sometimes, though, circumstance makes no other way for us than to descend into despair. When events far from our control threaten to overwhelm us, we can still turn to our God. Psalm 23:4 says this of God: "Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff — they comfort me." (HCSB)
This is why as I reflect on the song "Bright Side" by artist OBB, I am reminded that no matter what I face, I can have a hope and joy that people without Christ cannot understand. I've been asked many times how I can be happy and joyful consistently, and I remind them that I wake up some mornings feeling little hope at all. There are days when I see no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no hope ahead.
I remind them that with Christ, I have hope behind me as well. Tunnels extend in two directions, and when I can't see the light ahead, I can always see the light behind. By reflecting on how God has been at work in my life in the past, I grow hopeful for how He might use the current difficulties for my benefit.
Following Christ doesn't guarantee a happy life or an easy route to heaven. In fact, I think many Christians miss out on true joy because they don't know what it is to follow Christ. When we embrace His love with abandon and really start to seek Him, we come to recognize all that He's done for us. When we embrace the life He's set before us, we find that we have full hearts of hope even in the darkest of times.
God's faithfulness to us in any situation is due to His grace; He refuses to give up on His beloved. Without Him, we'd be hopeless, because we just can't seem to get it right. We never will. Christ interceded for us so that we wouldn't have to face the consequences of our sin. And when circumstance weighs heavy on our shoulders, His hope takes our burden and removes it far from us; a hope found behind, not before us.
I want to leave you with the choruses to two awesome songs; the first mentioned above: "Bright Side" by OBB. The second is "Through All Of It" by Colton Dixon. I encourage you to listen to them as well, but here are a taste of the lyrics:
"I'm looking through the grey skies,
reaching for the daylight!
This is not a perfect life,
but I'm gonna live on the bright side!
I'll brave every dark night,
waiting for the sunrise!
This is not a perfect life,
but I'm gonna live on the bright side!" - OBB
"I have won, and I have lost!
I got it right sometimes, but sometimes, I did not.
Life's been a journey; I've seen joy, I've seen regret,
but You have been my God through all of it!" - Colton Dixon
May God reveal to you His faithfulness in your own life! The hope we can find in the past makes it that much easier to #LiveItLikeJesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment