A Faithful God to the End

I've decided that one of the most tempting aspects of being the creature and not the Creator is that the fact that we are not omniscient. As in, we don't know what is in the hearts and thoughts of others. We don't know the end from the beginning. We don't know how the present trial will work together for the good of those who love God. We just ... don't know. All we can do is look back and, to paraphrase John Piper, contemplate the growing reservoir of past grace that has flowed through our lives, something we can clearly contemplate as we struggle with believing more grace will come in the future. 

For those who are in that struggle with the unknown, here's an encouraging word from Charles Spurgeon's devotional, Morning and Evening:

"And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul."—1 Samuel 27:1.

The thought of David's heart at this time was a false thought, because he certainly had no ground for thinking that God's anointing him by Samuel was intended to be left as an empty unmeaning act. On no one occasion had the Lord deserted His servant; he had been placed in perilous positions very often, but not one instance had occurred in which divine interposition had not delivered him. The trials to which he had been exposed had been varied; they had not assumed one form only, but many—yet in every case He who sent the trial had also graciously ordained a way of escape. David could not put his finger upon any entry in his diary, and say of it, "Here is evidence that the Lord will forsake me," for the entire tenor of his past life proved the very reverse. He should have argued from what God had done for him, that God would be his defender still. But is it not just in the same way that we doubt God's help? Is it not mistrust without a cause? Have we ever had the shadow of a reason to doubt our Father's goodness? Have not His lovingkindnesses been marvelous? Has He once failed to justify our trust? Ah, no! our God has not left us at any time. We have had dark nights, but the star of love has shone forth amid the blackness; we have been in stern conflicts, but over our head He has held aloft the shield of our defense. We have gone through many trials, but never to our detriment, always to our advantage; and the conclusion from our past experience is, that He who has been with us in six troubles, will not forsake us in the seventh. What we have known of our faithful God, proves that He will keep us to the end. Let us not, then, reason contrary to evidence.

God's faithfulness is something singer/songwriter Heather Williams commented on regarding her song, "Hallelujah." I've been listening to this song a lot in recent days. The open dialogue that David kept with the Lord is what Heather wanted to emulate in her life, especially after the loss of her son. This is a song for those who want to praise God even as they stumble through life. Which is to say, a song for all of us. Because of the Cross, we do know one thing: we are not forsaken.

 

Comments

[Nora]

Not forgotten nor forsaken...thanks for your encouragement

[Denise Towe]

I know several people, including myself, that needed to hear this Word this week.....I hope they check it out. Thank you for this word and your book, read it from cover to cover and came away much more informed that when I started...I thought I was unaffected by the feminist movement & found out I was wrong....I just needed some tweaking :)

[Gail]

My favourite movie is "Facing the Giants" and one of the lines in it is "If God does (give us what we desire) will you still love Him?" Like Heather says, I think this is a challenge for every believer, do we trust His omniscientness over our own feelings and current perspective?

Thanks for the reminder to look at the times in our lives when God has rescued us, delivered His promises, been faithful. Those are what gets us through the next challenge, and the next. I've always liked how God told Joshua to set altars all over the land so that God's miracles would be told throughout the generations.