We are indeed thankful that we depend upon a God that is “faithful” in everything that He does for His children. While others may disappoint us, God never disappoints if we are looking at it in the right perspective. We read in the scriptures that, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (I Cor. 10:13). The Lord is a present help in time of trouble and provides a way of escape which of course resides only in Him.
When we have disobeyed our God and have not kept His commandments, He chastises us with the rod of correction but His faithfulness still remains and continues to perform that good work in us until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” (Psalms 89:32-34). Just as faithful parents love their children, even when they go astray, so does the Lord continue His love for us as charity suffers long. But even though a woman may forget her sucking child, the Lord will not forget His own. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” (Isa. 49:15-16).
We may feel like David of old who was made to wonder “Is the mercy of the Lord clean gone forever? Does His promise fail forever more? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” (Psalm 77:8-9). This is our human weakness but remember God will not suffer us to be tempted (tried) with more than we are able to bear. Jeremiah lamented that his strength and hope had perished from the Lord; however, he searched his memory and recalled something to mind and was made to declare as a result: “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentation 3:19-23). The faithfulness (security, fidelity) of God cannot fail because He is incapable of failure. Jeremiah still had hope; it had just been misplaced. Each sunrise and each season of the year is a testimony to the faithfulness of God. These will not cease as long as the earth remaineth.
We are composed of body, soul, and spirit and Paul  writes to the church at Thessalonica in like fashion: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thess. 5:23). Then Paul gives them confirmation of this preservation with the statement: “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (I Thess. 5:24).
What if the children of God do not trust and believe in the faithfulness of God? The scripture doesn’t leave us in doubt as Paul writes to Timothy, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” (II Tim. 2:13). He cannot deny that which is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; He cannot deny His own but will present them holy and without blame before the Father after the resurrection. There may be a lot to see and endure before that time of deliverance, but God is faithful to see us through with His all sufficient grace. May God help us to be faithful to His great name!–August 11, 2014–Elder Larry Wise
