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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! |
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© 1923. Ren. 1951 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188 www.hopepublishing.com All rights reserved. Used by permission. |
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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.
Piano Hymns
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Nairobi, Nairobi East, Kenya
Oh! God be faithful to me as You have always been. I face a mountain now, help me. I believe You change not and You fail not!
Cape Town, Western Province, South Africa
This is my favourite hymn. The words mean so much to me and I use this song often in my personal praise and worship time.
Accra, Ghana
My pastor sang this wonderful hymn today after his sermon and since I didn't know the words decided to use the internet to search for it.
I have been a Christian all my life but it wasn't until I lost everything I had worked hard for that I really came to know God and gave my life to Him. I will be 47 on July 3rd and lived and worked in London for 13yrs and decided to come back home and start my own business. I thought I had it all. Life was really great and even though I was a Christian (had been all my life) I had not committed myself to God and accepted Jesus as my Saviour until ny business and fortunes hit the rocks and I lost everything but found Jesus. I can't stop telling the world how happy I am now. His mercies are abundant in my life. I don't leave to count my money or treasures but now I leave for Him in love and count my blessings in His holy name. The words of this song touched my heart so much that for the first time in my life I wanted to testify to the Lord for His faithfulness and blessings in my life. Thank You Jesus for Your glory. I can't leave another day without giving You the glory. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Holly Springs, MS, United States
I was singing this song this morning and was forgetting words and what not, but I hit that CHORUS and just began to cry out to the LORD! Ahhhh I am just believing and counting on GOD! His word can NOT come back having done nothing.
Dondingalong, New South Wales, Australia
There is not enough space here to share the way God has been faithful to me in the 72 years of my life! Early this morning I sat, preparing a sermon called "The faithfulness of God" in which I recall some of the incidents of His faithfulness to me. My testimony is that it is impossible to outgive God!! Give Him your life in humble service and He will just pour on the blessings. Sometimes life can be very difficult and circumstances very discouraging. Those are the times that our Father uses to perfect our faith! He doesn't cause them, but He certainly uses them. If we trust Him in those times, we learn that His love never fails, and we look back and see why He lead us as He did.
If you are young in the faith, take it from an old fellow who has lived both sides of life - the life of serving self and the life of serving God for 40 years. Not only is it safe to trust Him, it is a truly amazing and fulfilling journey. He will never fail you if you trust Him completely.
Obviously the author of this hymn experienced the same thing. God bless you friend! Look me up in heaven and tell me your story!
Allen, Texas, United States
I really love this song cause God is so real and so faithful! How can I forget all my tears, problems which I almost give up! Amen, God is faithful and I felt His presence in our family. He made all the impossible things possible. I want to shout how FAITHFUL HE IS! AMEN.
Broken Arrow, Ok, United States
This song was welling up inside of me, reminding me of His faithfulness, not mine. Just because there are those who doubt His very existence does not make it so. How can I forget the many times He has answered my prayers as soon as I said Amen. Do I now give up because He delays? Oh there is such joy in my heart when I realize He is real, He is faithful and He hears all my cries. My soul longeth for Him. He fails not. I started singing it aloud and I didn't care if it woke up anyone!
Washington, DC, United States
When out of frustration and despair you feel like tearing that Bible, cursing God or totally turning away from Him, remember He says; I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you until the end. We may never understand why bad things happen to good people, but if you hang on in faith, you will smile at the end because He will cause His light and favor to shine upon you. You will survive! Pekints
Grand Blanc, MI, United States
Who is faithful but Thee, O Lord. Truly great is Thy faithfulness and let me never forget. Let Your faithfulness ring in my soul forever into eternity.
Spokane, WA, United States
Don't give up! What looks like your worst trial is really your best friend! God "chastises" those He loves. He will bring us through the fires of trial purified so we can be His forever. We will someday praise and worship the almighty, Triune God together as one!