Faithfulness of God in the midst of our own grief

What is faithfulness= Faithfulness is a virtue that in it embodies Loyalty, dependability and stability.

Faithfulness in the Bible is ascribed to God’s character and is demonstrated in many Old and New Covenant passages and is a constant theme in the Bible. In Psalms 89 and 119 it says “God is faithful God who keeps covenant”( Deut.7:9).
In Lam3:23 the scripture says Great is His faithfulness.

It is great that even the Messiah Jesus Isaiah says in Isaiah 11:5 that is clothed with faithfulness.

The book of Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev.19:11) speaks of Him as The “Faithful One”.

In Revelations 1:5 & 3:14 also the scripture calls Him the “Faithful Witness”, and the book of Hebrews calls Him “Faithful High Priest”.
Though our hearts may drift away from such divine truth when going through the storms of life, yet the precious Holy Spirit is a constant reminder of this unshakable virtue of our God’s essence of Who He is.

As Israel was called the wife of Yahweh, in their marital relationship Israel many times had left her Husband by many acts of unfaithfulness, yet we see God’s unfailing love for this Old Covenant bride by staying always unchanging.

The Book of Hosea is a very moving fact of such loyalty of God towards His chosen spouse.

Today many search for this awesome divine virtue in fallen human vessels and many times are unable to find them in our generation.
It is only by His unchangeable attributes of divine Character that we too can receive such grace to become faithful objects of His invisible Kingdom.

This incredible Character of God is the ultimate supreme virtue of Christ the Messiah and it is by this virtue that we have a promise in the first letter of Apostle John that says “ If we confess our sin He is Faithful and Just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
This also is one of the fruit’s of the spirit spoken by Apostle Paul in Galatians 5.

Trouble and hardship are to draw us to God in experiencing His unfathomable mercy through His faithfulness.

Though when we are in trouble many times we neglect to see this awesome character of God, yet He still remains faithful to even prove and establish this part of Him for us to trust in.

This is why Asaph in Psalm 77 is writing a song in his anguish to God and in his distress he quarrels with God about God’s former goodness’s to him.

He said in his quarrel “ In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled, I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.” In His distress Asaph is thinking of the former days and of God’s mercies towards Him and was troubled about the fact that he no longer saw God’s miracles and mercies in His life and in his distress he directs a complaint to God for his misfortune.

It is a great soul searching time for Asaph and in verse 6 he wrote “ I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search.” See when trouble times come man can do a soul searching that can truly be a gift from God to bring that person to light. Since in God’s times of blessing for His people we think of His mercies as His obligations and not mercies, yet when they are cut off we have a chance to check our lives and the motives of our hearts and acknowledge Him.

When the heavenly prospective is all of a sudden lost and the earthly devastation is all we see we too like Asaph utter his words in verses 7 through 9 which says….

“ Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more? Has His mercies ceased forever? And will He be favorable no more? Has His mercies ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?
You see this is our out look on God and life when we are focused only on our troubles and are completely overwhelmed with the anxieties of life around us. By this we loose hope and our heavenly prospective. I believe this is why Luke says in chapter 21 in the last days if we are entangled by earthly things will loose our true prospective and strength to stand before the Son of man.

This is why Jesus said when I come will I find faith on earth?

You see the worries of this life saps the strength of faith from us and even bring us a big hindrance for receiving His blessing called unbelief do to a lack of remembrance of God’s greatest commodity which is His faithfulness.

The Psalmist in the midst of His quarrel with God all of a sudden is reminded of His own great problem and that is the condition of his own heart.

In verse 10 after he has a time of silence “ Selah” he receives the revelation from God and says “ I said “This is my Grief
( Anguish)”.

But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord”.

Surely I will remember Your wonders of Old and I will meditate on all Your work and talk of your deeds.

Wow “ What a revelation of how he needed to return to the place of his blessing.”

Looking back on the past miracles of God historically and personally is always positioning us for a Plato of renewed faith and personal revival. In his time of silence before the Lord Asaph discovered the problem was not God it was his own state of anguish and grief.

Immediately he receives revelation of how he can reposition himself for another miracle working grace being operated in his personal life.

First to silence the nagging feelings of despair by a reminder of himself of God’s past faithfulness towards others and himself and the second delivering method is to start speaking about them, which would boost faith in him.

The third reminder to himself and God in meditative language was to remind God that His ways are in the sanctuary and immediately after he started praising Him for past and future mercies.

In His praise He reminds God and Himself God’s awesome works of long ago and by these utterances He stirred up faith in himself and caused God to act once again on His behalf by giving the praise to Him for all he has done and all he would still able to do.

Just like in the story of the persistent widow and the unjust judge and the following words spoken by Jesus in regards to His own saints. Therefore we too should look at the atmosphere of our faith to be of persistence and expectation even in the event when the answer from our Just Judge is being delayed. As Asaph discovered by God’s special revelation that His problem was his state of grief and personal lack of praise and faith in God’s faithfulness, so was what our Lord was telling us in regards to receiving the answer of our prayers. I believe this is why the Lord commanded through Isaiah in chapter 54 to say “ Sing o barren you who have not borne.” since it is the atmosphere of praise that opens the doors for God’s blessings to flow. The one mite given by the other widow was an utterance of complete praise and trust also that brought her the approval of the master. This was an act of trust on God’s faithfulness to respond in mercy.

And to finish His psalm Asaph is now coming to the final place of His strengthening of His own faith by reminding God of not only of His faithfulness but that of the ignorance of his forefathers of God’s own presence in all that was done for them by Him.

In verse 19 Asaph reminds us of our obligation to repent in His presence for lack of our acknowledgement of His ever presence in our lives in His faithfulness through confession.

“ Your way was in the sea, Your path in the great waters, and Your footsteps were not known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

By this I believe the Lord is speaking to us in these final days about how we should position ourselves for our future breakthroughs by grace.

Your way was in the sea, Your path in the great waters, and Your footsteps were not known.
Psalm 77:19