God in His faithfulness

Isaiah 30:18  (Living Bible) Yet (Therefore) the LORD still waits for you to come to Him, so He can show you His love; He will conquer you to bless you.  Just as He said.  For the LORD is faithful to His promises.  Blessed are all those who wait for Him to help them.

Lamentations 3:21-26 (HCSB)  Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope; Because of the LORD's faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!  I say:  The LORD is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him.  The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.  It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the LORD. 
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God in His faithfulness is often on my mind.  Truly His faithfulness is beyond comprehension.  Faithful means:  constant, true to one's word, promises, vows, steady in affection.  Think with me a minute about God in His faithfulness.  One thing that strikes me with some regularity is the fact that God isn't just faithful...I mean that would be enough...but His faithfulness is always more...His faithfulness is GREAT.  Think about the fact that everything about God is beyond what we can possibly even grasp! He is always just more...

As I said, I am struck by His faithfulness and the fact that it is great.  All the time.  It does not ebb and flow with the passage of time or the emotions of the moment.  I find this to be hugely comforting and this promise in itself provides a great deal of hope for me.  Consider that God is faithful in the face of my unfaithfulness, of my flat out disobedience, in my apathy, in my selfishness...regardless of me and who I am or who I try to be.  He is faithful and His faithfulness is great!

Look at Isaiah 30:18.  The LORD waits for me to come to Him, for you...why because He wants to show His love...wait do you see the rest...He will conquer you to bless you.  What??? Conquer me to bless me!  Let's look at context for a moment.  In this passage God had warned Judah that turning to Egypt or other nations for military might could not save them.  He tells them in verse 15 that 'you will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence.'  So I need to realize that God is in control, that He is fully able to take care of me, my family, my circumstances, etc...to deliver.  When?  Well, when I am willing to return to Him and rest.  Rest, like sit still and do nothing?  No! Rest as in confidence in God and trust that He is at work.  He will lead and He will guide.  Maybe I am simplistic but, I so see this in my own life.  He has conquered me to bless me!  And He is making me truly grateful.

I have tried multiple times today to sit down and blog, but my day wasn't cooperating and yet I have been able to 'stew' on this topic throughout the day.  I began this morning with a literal stiff-neck.  Why is that important?  Well, it was a real life object lesson for me.  I began to consider how stubborn I can be, how I am often unwilling to turn in the direction I am led.  The word comes from describing oxen and how when they became determined how hard it was for farmers to get them to move.  Yep, so describes me.  Stiff-necked.  Literally and figuratively today ;-)  I can see where God has had to conquer me, my stiff-necked tendencies, in order to bless me.

You see, often in the past God has led me to help.  He has revealed His truth.  He has provided medicine for the depression, but in my stubbornness, in my determination that I knew what was best I missed His blessing.  I missed His rest.  I did not allow Him to show His love on so many occasions because I was sure that I needed to do more, be more etc....  Here I am today declaring that in this area of depression I now have a willingness to seek help until I am helped, to trust in God's provision for me.  He has conquered me.  Oh, it was a long, hard journey, one I am convinced was longer and harder because I was stiff-necked and unwilling to take Him at His Word, to believe His truth was for me, not just for the other person.  Now I am not saying that I can look back and say I should have, what I am saying is that in looking back I now see where God provided relief and help and I refused it out of pride and determination to 'fight' for myself, to try to fix myself...just like Judah I turned to other people and things or at least I allowed what other people might think or want determine what I did or how I did it.  No more.  I want to see Him be faithful to His promises.  He always is...I just want to have eyes to see.  I want to walk on this Journey His Way by learning to wait for Him.  He will be faithful.  He can be nothing less.

What is my job?  To come to Him and even in that, He draws me to Him!  John 6:44 "No one can come to Me (Jesus) unless the Father who sent Me draws Him."  See His faithfulness!  (Lam. 3)  So call to mind and have hope because of the LORD's faithful love, His unending mercy - which is new every morning, so it never gets old and it never runs out, and His great faithfulness.  State with confidence that the LORD is your portion - He is yours.  He is mine.  Determine to place your hope in Him, trusting that His love will never cease or fail.  To wait silently, quietly for His time of deliverance.  It will come.  The timing is up to Him, the results are up to Him.  I declare that He is trustworthy and His means of deliverance, while painful in my correction or my lack of understanding is leading to a greater trust in His faithfulness to His promises.  A knowing of His character.  So much time I have spent trying to 'figure' out what has been right in front of me the entire time.  Him.  Know Him.  Trust Him.  Seek Him. This Journey His Way is so much sweeter than my own way.  Being corrected and convicted beats being confused and controlling any day.

Oh, God, I have so far to go, but thank You that in Your faithfulness You never give up on me.  Even when I have to relearn a lesson over and over again.  You are still faithful.  Nothing is wasted even though sometimes it seems to be from a human view point.  You are at work.  You will be faithful.  It is not for me to figure out...it is for me to follow.  To place my hope in You...to look to You.  Thank You for another chance.  Thank You for Your brand new mercies that I can never exhaust.  Father, please help me to submit.  To come.