Great Is Thy Faithfulness

A devotional by Bill Kraftson

Through last year’s rereading of a daily devotional summarizing the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, I was reminded repeatedly of God’s faithfulness to keep his promises to his people. We worship and serve a God who delights in blessing us—we simply need to trust and obey him.

Regardless of how many times God’s chosen people wandered from him and deprived themselves of his blessing and protection, he was faithful and just to forgive them and bring about restoration whenever they humbled themselves. Remember Manasseh, who reigned for 55 years and was one of Judah’s most evil kings, promoting idolatry, child sacrifice, and witchcraft, and filling Jerusalem with innocent blood? Yet when this evil man truly humbled himself in captivity, God returned him to Jerusalem, where he did good and honored the Lord for the rest of his days. (2 Chronicles 33)

Of course, some suffering is because of faithfulness to the Lord: “those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10), those “of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:38). Yet God’s best promises are not fulfilled in this world, where we live as aliens. As the old saying goes, “the best is yet to come” for all those who look forward to his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:8)

“I know not when my Lord may come, at night or noonday fair, nor if I'll walk the vale with Him, or meet Him in the air. But I know Whom I have believèd, and am persuaded that He is able, to keep that which I've committed, unto Him against that day.”
(Hymn lyrics by Daniel Whittle, 1883)

Even when we are faithless, he is still faithful (2 Timothy 2:13)—sometimes in grand and glorious ways, sometimes through his ordinary, daily blessings, which are too many to count.