Great Is Your Faithfulness!

"I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:19-23 NIV)

This sounds like a passage of scripture we all could have written. Remembering those days when---we lived any way we wanted to live and reaped the consequences for our rebellion and opposition. When we caved to peer pressure and engaged in all sorts of illicit or immoral behavior. When we thought we were grown enough to do whatever we wanted to do. When our present was more important than our future because we gave no thought to our future. When people tried to tell us we were heading in the wrong direction and we would not listen and actually scorned those who tried to warn us.

And in spite of ourselves and our lack of wisdom and knowledge, God in His infinite mercy and love--showed us compassion when we were not able to show compassion to others and kept us for Himself and His purposes. Hallelujah for our compassionate and merciful and loving God. How great is He! Faithful to those who did not understand faithfulness. Loving those who did not understand how to love self and certainly no one else. Great is Your faithfulness, Lord to those of us who really didn't deserve it.

Never would we have found the courage to live a life pleasing to Him unless someone had prayed for us, had us on their minds, and God responded as only He can--with outstretched arms, willing and ready to forgive us, putting us on the right path, introducing us to His Son and His purpose in our lives.

I know there may be some reading this who cannot relate because they have lived perfect lives all of their lives--well this isn't for them. It's for the rest of us who had to find our way, through the muck and pits--having reached the end of ourselves so we would understand that without God--we have no existence worth living! We rejoice in His love and saving grace, for He didn't have to do it, but He did.

What He did for us--then and now--He'll do for others. It is His faithfulness towards mankind that will save them, just like it saved us. He will wait--until those who choose to live in opposition to Him reach the end of themselves and understand there is no live worth having without God in it and leading it. Though it appears that the world is headed for the lake of fire, God has a plan and His plan will succeed for all who are willing to heed the warnings and know His love.

God's faithfulness surpasses any human being's faithfulness because He doesn't keep a record of our wrongs, but keeps strengthening us to be strong in the Holy Spirit, who is always whispering in our ears and speaking to our hearts, God's Word, spoken to the faithful men of old, so we have continue to have hope, even when it seems like there is no hope for the lost.

Thank You for the mercies that are new every morning! Thank You for the love You keep shedding abroad in our hearts! Thank for the grace we receive to keep hope alive in every situation. Great is Your faithfulness, Lord unto to us! Keep praying for those on the wrong path!