Strength for Today and Hope for Tomorrow

On a summer morning in 2021, I was awakened once again with an old familiar hymn on my mind. It had been weeks of habitually waking up to my blaring alarm and no sooner than my feet would touch the floor, it began,

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be…

Perhaps, due to the truths spoken to the depths of my soul at the time, I couldn’t seem to escape this song. No matter how hard I tried. I would play the song while getting ready for the workday, hum it while sitting at my desk at work, and loop it to play during my car rides home. Each time thinking, I’ll play it just one last time.

Approaching two years in a global pandemic, I found myself between both ends of the spectrum when it came to coping. Where, I had learned to navigate the nuances of the ever-changing environment with some ease but at the same time—depending on the day–felt crushed underneath the mental and emotional toll of the past two years.

Just as the year before had been such a fickle year, so was 2021. The only constant I could recognize was the fact that 2021 looked a lot like 2020—inconsistent. But even in the paralleled inconsistencies, nothing became more evident to me that summer than the faithfulness of God.

It is something about ever-shifting matters that allows God’s constant, stable, and assuring character to shine ever so bright. As I took a step back for a moment and reminisced on all of the answered prayers, the times in which God showed up, and the difficult periods He ushered me through; my heart overflowed with gratitude.

My initial mistake of being under the impression that God hadn’t visibly acted on my behalf for quite some time (especially during these pandemic years) was met with a gleeful stroll down memory lane. And truth be told, I didn’t have to stroll back too far.

All that I had ever needed up to that point, had been provided at the proper time. The things I once formerly stressed over were all cleared in the matter of time. And though I still stood knee deep in a flood of unanswered prayers, the awareness of God’s track record strengthened my hope. Remembering God’s faithfulness towards me in life reassured me that He is just too faithful to begin failing me and He did not bring me to that point to then abandon me.

The hymn I couldn’t shake was just a constant reminder during that period that the same God that was capable of coming through in the past is the same God who is in control right now. Even during the uncertain climate.

One thing about God is, we can always count on Him to be faithful. He’s faithful even when we are not because faithful is an essence of who He is (2 Timothy 2:13). To exemplify the essence of His faithful nature, I believe He provided us with daily reminders we experience through His creation. Romans 1:20 speaks on how God’s invisible qualities are clearly seen and understood through everything God has made.

We can get caught up on the proof of God’s faithfulness shown by the seemingly big things He’s done for us in the past. Which is fine, but I think we often miss the fact that He’s also proven to be faithful through the mercy He extends on a day-to-day basis as well.

The prophet Jeremiah lined up his struggles and distress against what he knew about the day-to-day faithfulness of God by writing,

“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 [mercies] never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3: 21-23 (NIV)

In Lamentations 3, Jeremiah recounted how horrible things currently were for him. However, in spite of how bad things were, Jeremiah saw that by the mercy of God, he had not been consumed by it. He found solace in the hope of God’s love and God’s unfailing compassion extended every day.

God’s love and unfailing compassion allow for us to experience the simplest of blessings on a daily basis. Only a faithful God can consistently cause the sun to rise and set at the proper time each day. Moreover, position that very same sun in the precise location where it is close enough to earth so that we won’t freeze to death, yet far enough so that we won’t burn to death. Or, the fact that God’s faithfulness is shown in the daily heartbeats and breathes we take to sustain basic life.

It’s easy to become familiar with what God consistently does everyday out of compassion toward us. So much so, that it leads us to often take His mercies for granted. I didn’t do everything right today and I’m willing to bet you haven’t dotted every “i” and crossed every “t” today either. On account of our daily shortcomings, we deserve to be cutoff. Nevertheless, because of God’s compassion toward us, He is faithful in remembering the completed work of His Son, Jesus Christ, as Christ sits at the right hand of the Father making intersession on our behalf (Romans 8:34).

He truly is faithful y’all! We can’t get caught up in the negative moments and miss out on acknowledging that truth.

As we continue navigating through this first quarter, there may still be some apprehension about what all 2022 may bring. Like the previous two years, we may experience a great deal of uncertainty. But there’s One who remains consistent in being certain and He is God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore (Hebrews 13:8). During times such as this, be sure to hold on to the character of God. Because, remembering God’s faithfulness through past experiences and His current daily mercies, brings about strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.