Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Faithfulness of God

Here's today's post from Our Daily Bread.

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Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God." —Mark 11:22

Some of Jesus' words to His disciples about having faith in God leave me wondering if I can ever exercise that level of trust and confidence in prayer. I can't recall telling a mountain to relocate itself into the ocean and watching it happen.

Hudson Taylor, pioneer missionary to China, said that Jesus' words in Mark 11:22, "Have faith in God," could be translated, "Hold on to the faithfulness of God."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, former pastor of London's Westminster Chapel, appreciated Taylor's insight and said: "Faith is holding on to the faithfulness of God and, as long as you do that, you cannot go wrong. Faith does not look at the difficulties. . . . Faith does not look at itself or at the person who is exercising it. Faith looks at God . . . . Faith is interested in God only, and it talks about God and it praises God and it extols the virtues of God. The measure of the strength of a man's faith, always, is ultimately the measure of his knowledge of God. . . . He knows God so well that he can rest on the knowledge. And it is the prayers of such a man that are answered."

"Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations" (Ps. 119:89-90). David C. McCasland

Trust in Him, ye saints, forever—
He is faithful, changing never;
Neither force nor guile can sever
Those He loves from Him. —Kelly

Life is not always fair, but God is always faithful.


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When we talk about faith, hope and love, we oftentimes forget that without "trust", we can never realize these 3. Many times we talked so boldly about loving God, and putting our hopes and faith in Him, but at the back of our minds, we have numerous doubts on the extent of His might. Human as we are, the Lord understands and forgives, simply because of love. This alone should awaken us, that God's faithfulness in us is so huge, all we could ever do is to leave everything up to Him. It is so easy to say, "Thy will be done", but do we really mean it when we say these words? Sometimes we have to ask ourselves, to check the status of our faith each day.... I guess it's a healthy and humble way to keep in touch with God, and at the same time, ourselves.

In times of worry and confusion, I always remind myself -- There's a time for everything. Trust in God and you will never go wrong. The best is yet to come.

May we have that constant communication with Him. May we continue to pray for each other so that we continue, re-gain, or deepen, our trust in the Lord. Have a wonderful Wednesday. God bless everyone!

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