And that's, a long time ...

Well I got that song converted to an mp3 so I could play it in my car today. What an awesome song "Marvelous Light (Passion 07)" by Charlie Hall. I wouldn't begin to guess how often I listened to it today. Turns out, that wasn't the manna God had for me today, though. 


I got in my car this morning and, before I had a chance to turn any sound on, realized I had "Forever God is Faithful" running repeatedly through my mind. I couldn't help but smile at God's sense of humour. Two days of trying to get "Marvelous Light" working for me and I finally have it sorted out and God says, "That's cool, but do you want what I have for you?" After the day I had yesterday I figured I was likely well advised to go with His plans today. His ways are, after all, higher then my ways. So, God is faithful ... no, not just faithful but forever faithful. That's a long time.


If God wants to tell me today that He is forever faithful then I want to see what the Word has to say about God's Faithfulness. I certainly didn't have time today to do anything close to an exhaustive look at the subject, but then, that's not what this is about, is it? It's about manna.


Google has become my partner in gathering manna. It's remarkable how quickly you can find verses you remember a snippet of or verses that apply to a certain topic with a search engine. I know, I could use that library full of books I've got at the end of the living room, and I do when I have the time - just because I love books, but when I'm on the road and have five minutes here and ten minutes there it just doesn't seem all that practical to take my library with me. But on to the manna ... what a wealth of reassurance about God and His faithfulness to us. 


I started off in Hebrews 6:17-19 "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." 

God was so intent on making His unchanging nature clear to me, one of His heirs, that He confirmed it with an oath. Not just any oath, mind you, He swore by two unchangeable things ... it is impossible for God to lie. So I can grasp the hope He offers me, knowing that my soul is anchored. It may feel as though it's mired in quicksand. It may seem an impossible situation. But God says, "I am unchanging". So if He is unchanging, and if He is faithful ... well it follows that He must by definition be forever faithful because He's not changing.

From there I bounced way back into the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 7:7,8 "The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt." 


Why me? Why would God choose me to be His heir, to be the recipient of His faithfulness. It's not as though I'm more deserving than others. It's because He loved me. God loved me and so He choose me. His love and His choice. I didn't lobby for it, I didn't send in an application with a resume attached, He initiated it and He brought it to pass.

A quick skip across the Old Testament landed me in Lamentations 3:21-26, "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. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,  to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD."

His compassions never fail, that's almost like forever, isn't it? Follow that with "great is your faithfulness" and I think I'm starting to get the picture. Still picking up morsels though, so I keep going. The Psalms, they're always good for a reality check and if anyone had cause to question God's faithfulness, well aside from Job that is, David sure faced his share of hardship. In spite of all the calamity that seems to have shadowed David's life he was able to compose stuff like;


Psalm 36:5,6 "Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,  your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,  your justice like the great deep." and;


Psalm 108:1-5 "My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul. Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth." 

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed" It is only because of God's love that I am not consumed, that my circumstances don't destroy me and shatter my faith. This is truth! Even when I can feel the teeth gnawing away at me deep withing, I can know with certainty that I will not be consumed. So, like the Psalmist, I must choose to acknowledge God's great faithfulness. I must choose to "sing and make music with my soul", to make noise and draw attention to God and who He is. To awaken the morning if need be, but to praise Him with all that is within me. Great is the Lord!