The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning.
Great. Yes, great is Your faithfulness, oh Lord.
Great is Your faithfulness.
Through thick and thin, through all the moments I revel in victory, and in all the moments I wallow in defeat, You are faithful.
Through all that I bring myself to, or through all I’m brought to by circumstance and by the rest of the world, behold, You are faithful still.
You are faithful. You have been faithful. Even yesterday, when I shared about the wonder of Your name, going beyond what we may think.
Yeah, I thought I’d just talk a little bit about what I actually talked about yesterday. It seems I focused more on the value of our names, and more on the infinite value of His name. We dwelled on His honor, His character, and His authority, and I did lead the folks to singing up to the chorus of ‘Lord I Lift Your Name On High’, if only to emphasize that in their singing the chorus in particular, they paid homage to these three things. To wrap it all up I shared to them that it’s one thing to trust in the Lord, but one aspect we shouldn’t be forgetting to it is that we trust in His name – and consequently we trust in His honor, and His character, and His authority, more than anyone or anything else in this world.
Again, some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord.
I trust in His name, even at this moment. I finished working out a couple of hours ago, and I took a good bath followed by taking in a good meal, if only to just rest, and also, to reprogram my cluttered mind. See, what’s sad is a lot of times, even when I’m aware of just how this world and all that happens in it can definitely throw us off balance and leave our thoughts and ideas all over the place; A lot of times I bring this upon myself. I talk a big game about famines and earthquakes, but here I am, feeding my own being physical and mental junk close to literal manure. Here I am, shaking my own foundation.
…and here I am, in spite of my own self-sabotage, just trying to get things straightened out, through writing and speaking the mighty works of God. Just as in the marketplace, the people heard these supposedly uneducated folk speaking in their own language, of how God is good and how He does good – so I’m speaking to myself, primarily, of His goodness… in the hopes that I am led to repentance. A change of thinking. A reprogramming. A reformatting, not only of things within my attention and within my perception, but, God-willing, of everything and everything that I’ve had the audacity to ignore and pull to the side, if only for my own selfish reasons. Here I am, saying that God is good, and He is good to me:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him, all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
I pointed out earlier that I tried out of my own efforts to do some of my own ‘reprogramming’ – that is, at least by way of working out. I’ll tell you that those burpees that I squeezed out were quite the feat, and while I did have YouTube playing in the foreground, it did allow me to practice a little bit of focus. As such, the body moved, and the mind grooved, and vice versa.
However, I think it’s here, and I’ll keep coming back to ‘here’ – that is, back to front and center, eyes focused on the Savior of my soul, meditating on precisely that (how He saved me) for some serious overhauling. I mean, if you’ve been reading along (again, thank you, by the way), you probably have an idea of just how many times I’ve done this, or at least how many times I’ve made it known out in the open. Lord knows how many times I’ve wanted to do some major ‘reprogramming’ with my mind and my entire being.
There are just so many things that I thought I put to the side, but are apparently still either weighing me down or actively wearing me down.
On top of what Scripture and what exhortation I run to (from Lamentations, and the Doxology, as you just read), I want to add another Scripture, from Psalm 27:
I will remain confident in this
I will see the goodness of the Lord
Okay, that wasn’t necessarily verbatim, or at least that’s not how the ESV is… but that is from a song that I’ve had close to my heart ever since I allowed the Holy Spirit to lead me to taking God and Jesus Christ more seriously; The song is Everlasting God (We Set Our Hope), and there’s at least one part where you just keep singing that line over and over… and for the moment I think I’d like to keep singing it to my brain, or in my mind…
…Because, see right there, perhaps it’s not reprogramming I need, more than to say that God’s goodness is to be seen even in these times of darkness and confusion. And even if I’m the one who brought confusion to myself through my old antics and habits, well, I say again: I am confident that even in these moments I shall see His goodness.
In all that we’re going through, may we see His goodness. May I see His goodness, and in the process, be transformed. For it’s not a mere prayer, but a realization: The goodness of God is what leads us to repentance. In other Scripture it does state that Godly sorrow also brings us to repentance… but to feel this sorrow would have our eyes wide open, and our ears more tuned into the ultimate catalyst: The goodness of God.
And at this point in time, we should probably all be aware that the ultimate expression of the goodness of God is found in no less than Christ – Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, who did what He did to save us, and does what He does, and will do what He said He will do, all out of God’s (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) everlasting love for us.
Looking at all that I run to, I can go ahead and say that I DO see God’s goodness, in the form of His faithfulness, present even when my own faith is absent or in question. I DO see His goodness, in the form of His neverending mercies for me, overflowing yesterday, but new and overflowing today, as it will be the next day, until the end of time.
And finally, because I see His goodness, I am brought – my ENTIRE being is brought to say that His love for me is not only everlasting, never ceasing, but it is steadfast; JUST as I would go ahead and say that I KNOW God is good, only because I know that He loves me with a steadfast love.
It’s because of this that I am brought to praise! Amidst the regret and intimidation, I declare, Praise God! For even in these moments, His blessings flow! Yes, even in all that is happening and changing within me, His blessings flow.
Praise God! For even in all that is happening around, whether by creature or by something of our own creation, behold: all creatures and the heavenly host are endlessly and steadfastly being called to their original purpose – to praise the Creator: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
I’ll be honest, I can’t say that I feel as better as I like right now, after all of this – but I WILL say that I’m glad I shared all of it. I’m glad I just let it all out of my chest.
In my moments of doubt and stumbling, may the Lord continue to be praised… and as we continue to proclaim this year: May the Name of the Lord protect you.
Thank you for your time. God bless you.
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#Bible #Faith #Faithfulness #GoodnessOfGod #JesusChrist #PracticalChristianity #Praise ##Reflections #Repentance #Reprogramming
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