faithfulness Love

God’s Great Faithfulness

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul “Therefore I hope in Him!”  Lamentations 3:23-24

The book of Lamentations tells us that God is a Father who never gives up on His children. His people had rejected Him and yet even as they were being led away as captives to Babylon; God was already planning for the return of their children and grandchildren. After times of failure and disappointment in my life I have found encouragement by the  verse that says, ”He is not ashamed to call them brethren” Hebrews 2:11. In spite of our failures, sins and weaknesses Jesus never turns his back on us just as he didn’t give up on the children of Israel while they were in Babylon. No matter where we are Jesus is always faithful, willing to forgive us and help us find our way home.

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When my father passed away and I had to put his financial affairs in order I was surprised to discover that he had put my name on the title to his home. He did this to give to me all that he had. In that same way God is my portion because He has through Jesus Christ put my name and yours on the title to His house. There in heaven waiting for us is a place that is ours because in His great faithfulness He has become our portion and our eternal inheritance.

Maybe this morning you need to just take a moment as you listen to this song again.  God remains faithful in the middle of whatever you are facing or wherever your pathway may lead. May God bless and keep you as you trust in Him and His great faithfulness to us all.

Walking on the Waters

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Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity… Hebrews 6:1a NIV

Sometimes when we read this portion of scripture we want to skip ahead to the gallery of faith heroes in chapter 11. These passages can seem dry and filled with a high theology disconnected from our daily life. But in reality they are incredibly practical and are put there to help us to reorient our relationship with Jesus from simply looking back to His work of salvation in our past. They are focusing like a laser on the right here and right now nitty gritty of our struggles today.

When the writer of Hebrews says let us go on to maturity he points us to the ministry of Jesus as our high priest. When Jesus said, “It is finished!” on the cross, He didn’t mean that He was now ready to retire to heaven. Instead He passed from His sacrificial role as the lamb of God to become our  eternal high priest who will pray for us for us every day till the end of time. Just as Jesus was watching his disciples struggling at the oars on the Sea of Galilee, while he was on the mountain praying, so he is watching over us as we are rowing across our own rough waters. In the same way that he came walking across the waters to help them, so He is ready to come and help us with whatever we face today.  

We must never undo what lies on the path behind but maybe today God is calling you and me to focus on His purpose for what lies ahead. What is on your path today? Jesus is already praying for you and if you look out you just might catch a glimpse of Him walking on the waters towards you!

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An Invisible Faith

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Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29 ESV

Some days it is easier than others to walk in our invisible faith. The circumstances around us seem confusing and often our friends and family wonder why we would choose to blindly follow Jesus Christ. But the power of invisible faith carries us forward one step at a time. It cannot be destroyed because no one can see its form and strike it dead with visible weapons. It cannot be explained, conjured up or reasoned into existence. Our faith in Jesus is a gift from above that arrives like seeds blown in the wind that quietly settle in our hearts when we are looking for Him.

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And when that invisible faith enters in to the secret place of our inner person it begins a work that usually remains unseen for a while. Then the unseen seed silently yet irresistibly grows. From the beginning of our journey God has plans for that seed will in the end be a reflection of His own eternal love. And then we will understand the promise that Jesus told Thomas about when He said, “More blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” What an amazing thought that 20 centuries after His death we are offered a greater blessing than Thomas – if only we will believe. We must simply trust  that one day we will know the visible reality of that blessing when we stand in His presence and see with our own eyes the face of Jesus Christ.