Great is THY Faithfulness

I am feeling the sense that God is testing my faith, growing my faith, increasing my faith. I see this in many areas of my life, some of which I can't necessarily discuss on the blog, but trust me. He's telling me something. I am very thankful, and I am very encouraged when He speaks so kindly and openly to us in His word.

Psalm 37

"Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself [....]

The steps of a man are established by the LORD,
when he delights in his way;
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the LORD upholds his hand.
I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
He is ever lending generously,
and his children become a blessing."

Gosh, I feel like could take this psalm phrase by phrase and make application in my life right now. I love it when scripture bounces off the page at me like that! Anyway, one of the things I am seeing and hearing from the LORD is that HE is faithful. My faith is frail and weak and cannot be sustained by my own strength and will power, but HE IS FAITHFUL.

The other night, Jonathan and I were out to dinner with a precious couple that go to our church. They are about Jonathan's parents' age and have six children. Gosh, are they just oozing with wisdom and the Bible just poured out of them! I pray that I make much of the time, investing myself and my time in the Lord and His Word that Scripture just flows out of me that way. It was wonderful and so edifying to just be with them! Anyway, we were discussing something together, when the wife looked over at me and said, "You know, God will never disappoint us. When we get to heaven, there isn't one thing that we can look to him about and say, 'You know, God, I trusted you with this, and I shouldn't have.'"

Talk about stop me in my tracks.

That is so what I needed to hear!

I may not always understand God's ways or may not always like the path that He chooses to lead us on, but I do believe that He is good and that He is faithful and that He is sovereign. And I do believe that when I get to heaven one day, I will be able to see clearly how all things have worked together for good. I will be able to say, "God, you are so trustworthy! It makes SO much sense!"

One day, when I am old and gray, I know that by God's grace I can say:

"I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
He is ever lending generously,
and his children become a blessing."

Thank you, Father, for being so near to me today and for speaking so clearly this week!