Faithful God

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;  Deuteronomy 7:9 (KJV)

This week we are exploring the depths of  "el hanne eman" - The Faithful God

     The human body is perhaps the greatest feat of engineering in the universe.  From the unsearchable mysteries of the human brain to the complex working of the foot the body inspires wonder.  We take the parts and pieces of our body for granted.  I am sitting here on the couch with a broken calcaneus bone. I have walked on that bone for fifty six years and never knew the name, never understood how it worked, and really never gave it any thought, until it shattered.  One twelve foot drop off a ladder and everything changed.  The intricate balance of our bones, nerves, muscles, blood, and tissue work day in and day out keeping us mobile and functioning in this world, yet we give them very little thought.  Oh, we wash the body but mostly so that we can be comfortable and not offend others.  We groom the hair and clip the nails, clean the ears, and eat, but how much thought do we give to the body when we do these things.  Really we treat it with little thought about how wonderful and amazingly faithful it is.  We just use it.

     We often treat God much the same way taking for granted the blessings and presence of His hand in our lives.  We remember the “big” moments!  The times that God reached into our lives and rescued us but those dramatic events are not what really define the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father.  He never leaves us.  When we are alone and things are quiet, He is there.  When we are playing, He is there.  When we are holding our children and grandchildren in our arms, He is there.  In the quiet meadow or the rocky mountain top God has always been there. 
We love to talk about how God was in the lion’s den with Daniel keeping him through the night but we forget that God was there when Daniel was taken captive; He was there when Daniel was chosen to serve in the King’s Court, and He was there at the window three times a day.  The faithfulness of God is not found in the great rescue but in the mundane repetitions of the everyday lives of His people. 

     This is what truly amazes me about God.  Every morning when I open my eyes He is there.  For most people that moment doesn’t bring about a dynamic religious experience.  They don’t even acknowledge Him.  Not even a good morning.  But He has been there every day for the last fifty six years of my life.  When I was a slave to my sinful nature and didn’t give Him a thought, He was there. When I ignored His warnings and lived my life in defiance to His holiness, He was there.  When life did not seem worth living, He was there.  When I called out through the pain of my own existence, He was there.  His love has never failed, never abandoned me, and never let me go.  Like the Father of the Prodigal Son, He stood on the porch and looked down the road waiting for me to come home.  He was there!

     When we relegate God’s faithfulness to the miraculous events in our lives we fail to truly understand His love for us.  Ask any woman who feels deeply loved and she will tell you it’s not the big dates, but the assurance of her loves faithfulness is in the little things, the everyday things.  Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and that love has been faithfully demonstrated to us every day of our lives.