Great is Thy faithfulness

B19 C13 CB19 D19 E19 F218 K13 LSM5 P15 R11 T19
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"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!
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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.
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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!
1406
Susan

Falls Church, VA, United States

Have been going through a rough time emotionally - the piano version of this song has uplifted me - I put it on - sing quietly as I begin my day. It has made such a difference. I know I never have to walk alone.


Lydia Arao

Kampala, Uganda

It is a song that pushes me on when I am discouraged. Love it.


Josephine

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

My best hymn ever since. It normally lifts my faith to Jesus. Thanks.


Dunni Bakare

Plano, TX, United States

It lifts me up spiritually and reminds me of the goodness and steadfastedness of God.


Adolf Ndih

Bucharest, Romania

This song reminds me of God's mercy and faithfulness in my life and in my family. Though we don't deserve it but He's faithfulness never fails. God bless the writer.

The song always sounds new to my ears and it ministers to my heart whenever I sing it.


Emmanuel Adaji

Kaduna, Nigeria

This song is one of my best hymns and I just selected it to be one of my wedding day hymn.


Jeanette Brown

Newark, Delaware, United States

I was writing a dear friend a letter of encouragement when the Holy Spirit placed this powerful song in my spirit. After sending it to her and others I later shared it with the prayer group at the church I attend. It is a song that never stops ministering to the hearts of the listeners. We are so blessed by Abba Father because He loves His children with a everlasting love. He is Faithful; He is Agape Love!


Aso

Accra, Ghana

I dreamt I was belting this song. The dream was of a flood up to the neck of people in the water and all of a sudden after I had wondered how I was going to cross. Immediately the water started receding very swiftly. Then someone started singing this song and I joined in singing at the top of my voice. Woke up and realised I didnt know the lyrics apart from the first lines of the chorus...so! It ministered to me of God's unchanging love and mercies every day!!


Treasure Oba

Abuja, Fct, Nigeria

This is my best ever woship song, even in my unfaithfulness He is ever faithful to me.

I love the song. It has changed my entire being and each time I minister it others get blessed. More wisdom from above to the writer!


Erwin De Leon

Lansing, MI, United States

First time I heard this was in 1989, a time when the Lord said it was time for me to come back to Him after living in the world, according to my ways. as He drew me to Himself, this was one of the first Praise Music I've heard with great impact - an assurance that He is with me during my lost times. Now 23 years later, I will sing it with my wife to open our Home Marriage Bible Study (2=1).

Although we are unfaithful, God is faithful. Lamentations 3:23b says, "Great is Your faithfulness." The chorus of a well-known hymn on God's faithfulness (Hymns, #19) says, "'Great is Thy faithfulness!' 'Great is Thy faithfulness!' / Morning by morning new mercies I see; / All I have needed Thy hand has provided—/ 'Great is Thy faithfulness,' Lord, unto me!" We may understand what the Bible says and what this hymn says about God's faithfulness either in a natural way or in a spiritual way. When you sing this hymn, how do you understand the word faithfulness? If you understand God's faithfulness in a natural way, you may think that He is faithful primarily in the matter of material provisions or physical blessings. When some say that God is faithful, they mean that He is faithful to take care of their material needs. However, in 1 Corinthians 1:9 Paul says, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." God is faithful in this matter, but He may not be faithful to provide you a large house or a well-paying job. I would not deny the fact that God is faithful in caring for our welfare. My point is that God's faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding.

Consider the sufferings of the apostle Paul. He was called, commissioned, burdened, and sent by God, but wherever he went he had troubles. For example, as soon as he began to preach Christ, he began to suffer persecution. He even had to escape from Damascus by being lowered down the wall in a basket. Does this mean that God was not faithful to Paul? No, it means that God's faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding.

When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we might have expected to have peace and blessing. But instead we might have had many troubles and might have lost our security, our health, or our possessions. When some Christians experience such things, they may question God's faithfulness and ask why He did not prevent hardships from happening to them.

We need to realize that in allowing us to have troubles, God is faithful in His purpose to turn us from idols and bring us back to Himself. Our peace, safety, health, and possessions may become idols to us, and God is faithful to take these things away so that we may drink of Him as the fountain of living waters. If our house or our possessions become idols to us, we drink of them and not of God. God's faithfulness is a matter of dealing with these idols and causing us to drink of Him.

God is faithful in leading us into His economy, and His economy is for us to drink Christ, to eat Christ, to enjoy Christ, to absorb Christ, and to assimilate Christ that God may have His increase with us to fulfill His economy. This is God's faithfulness.

Instead of drinking of God as the fountain of living waters, Israel drank of their idols. Therefore, God used the Babylonians to deal with these idols and also to destroy Jerusalem and even the temple, which had become an idol to them. We need to see that we are not better than Israel. Anything can become an idol to us. But God is faithful in fulfilling His economy. In His faithfulness He deals with our idols that we may drink of Him. We all need to drink of God as the fountain of living waters, receiving Christ into us and assimilating Him, so that He may increase for the fulfillment of God's economy to have His expression through His counterpart.

Whereas God is faithful, we are neither faithful nor chaste but go to many other husbands. After failing God, we may receive some mercy and grace and therefore repent and weep, saying, "How pitiful I am! For a long time I have not loved the Lord very much, and I have not attended the meetings." While we are repenting and weeping, God is rejoicing. However, if we repent and weep too much, even our repentance may become an idol. We may testify in a meeting, saying that we have thoroughly repented to God. But this may be a matter of self-boasting and be a self-made idol. Therefore, after repenting, we should begin to drink of the living waters, praising God, giving thanks to Him for everything, and enjoying Him. This is what God wants. God is not interested in anything other than our enjoyment of Christ.

Jeremiah's speaking in Lamentations 3:22-26 is another pattern of prophesying: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." Jeremiah told us that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. This is not foretelling but blessing, well-speaking. He told us that the mercies, the compassions, of the Lord are new every morning. We need to learn to prophesy in this way. Jeremiah told the Lord, "Great is thy faithfulness." There is a well-known hymn based upon this verse (Hymns, #19). Jeremiah also said that the Lord was his portion. It is marvelous that there was a prophet in the Old Testament who knew that the Lord was his portion. When we tell others that the Lord is our portion, we are speaking the Lord to them.

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