- A lesson Israel learned during their wilderness journey was that God’s provision of manna for them was on a morning by morning basis.
- They could not survive on old manna nor could it be stored for future use (Exodus 16:19–21)
- Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
- Thomas Chisholm, who sometimes described himself as “just an old shoe,”
- He was born in a Kentucky log cabin in 1866.
- He had no high school nor advanced education
- Became a school teacher at 16 at the school he went too
- He was converted when he was 27, became a pastor at 36,
- He had to retire one year later due to poor health.
- He spent the majority of the rest of his life as a life insurance agent in New Jersey.
- He speaks of himself just before his death "My income has never been large at any time due to my poor health. "
- "God's unfailing faithfulness has kept me
- "His providing care have filled me with astonishing gratefulness"
- He died in 1960 at the age of 93.
- During his life he wrote over 1200 poems, most of which no one will ever hear.
- George Beverly Shea introduced this hymn at a crusade in the UK in 1954
Psalm 36:5 (AV)
5 Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
Lamentations Begins & Ends In Sorrow.
Lamentations 1:1–2 (NLT)
1 Jerusalem, once so full of people, is now deserted. She who was once great among the nations now sits alone like a widow. Once the queen of all the earth, she is now a slave.
2 She sobs through the night; tears stream down her cheeks. Among all her lovers, there is no one left to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her and become her enemies.
Lamentations ends in sorrow
Lamentations 5:20–22 (AV)
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
- Jewish teachers called Lamentations
- "Wailings"
- The Latin Vulgate calls the writings "Lamentations"
- The worst has happened. Jerusalem is in ruins.
- They have lost their homes.
- All the people of Jerusalem and surrounding Judea have been killed, captured or ruined.
- Now they may also lose their nation and their faith.
Does God Stop Working?
- Is there such a thing as a “God-failure,”
- When God stops working?
- Sometimes it seems that God has failed us
- Into Our Life Come Problems
- Physical
- Financial
- Personal
- Relational
- Vocational
- Or some other type of disaster
- It looks as though God has stopped blessing, stopped protecting, stopped caring.
- We think we are experiencing a God-failure
- Has God stopped working?
So What Happened?
Failing to believe In Him
Numbers 14:11–12 (AV)
11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
Failing to love Him
Matthew 22:37 (AV)
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Failing to obey Him
Matthew 7:26 (AV)
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Failing to abide in Him
Jer. 15:6 (NET)
I, the LORD, say: ‘You people have deserted me! You keep turning your back on me.’ So I have unleashed my power against you and have begun to destroy you. I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!”
Seeking His Mercy Changes Us
Psalm 31:7 (AV)
7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
- In the midst of Lamentations are two verses that look beyond the wailing
Lamentations 3:22–23 (AV)
22 It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
These two verses are surrounded by five verses of hope 18, 21, 24, 26, 29
- It is the hope that is set on God's mercy
- His mercy can be counted on because he is faithful
- God will never fail his people
Hebrews 13:5–6 (AV)
5 .... he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
- Am I faithful?
- Reason we can sing "Great Is Thy Faithfulness"
- His mercies are new every morning
Innumerable Mercies: —
Our daughter sent her mom on Mother's Day Cascading Petunias ...Loaded with many flowers upon one branch, with many stalks on a plant. The basket was full of plants. These flowers overflowed the basket and hanging down like a cascading falls. Now as the flower faded away it was replaced over and over by another & another and another.
You may think you have but one mercy, but you soon find it to be a whole garden of mercies
It like a father walking home one winter’s evening with his daughter at his side, when she looked up into the sky and said, “Daddy, I am going to count the stars.”
- “Very well,” he said, “do.”
- And soon he heard her whispering to herself, “221, 222, 223,”
- Then she stopped and sighed. “Oh dear! I had no idea” they were so many!
- Like this little girl. I have often tried to count my mercies, but soon I have to cry out, I had no idea they were so many!”
- Problem we seem to give thanks on only one day of the year.
Listen! “Never go to God for new blessings before we have given Him a receipt for the old ones.” We may at least recognize them, and the recognition is sure to cause us to be grateful.
- Most often our lives are one big sponge, one hungry petition after another, always greedily asking, and never stopping to repay with thanksgiving.
- God is always faithful
- We see his immense love in giving us Jesus Christ
- It's time to come to him and give thanks
Deuteronomy 7:9 (AV)
9 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;
Lamentations 3:23 (AV)
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
