Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 7:9)The Lord your God is God…God by very definition is supreme, omniscient, omnipresent, greater and bigger than even the mind can conceive. There is nothing that falls outside the realm of His power…nothing that He does not either cause or allow to happen…nothing that He can not either prevent or cause to work out for good. God is God…and we are not…neither is anyone or anything else. “Who is God?” is the question at the heart of decisions we make daily. My choice to fret or to disobey or take matters into my own hands…whatever…they all in effect say something about who God is to me in that moment…or more to the point what my god is in that moment. When I choose to worry – though the word says “Do not worry (Matthew 6:34)” – I am making that thing I am worrying about God…or myself God, by saying that what I am feeling is bigger and truer than God.
The faithful God…He knows all and is in all and is faithful in all things. No crisis is too great…no trifle too small to escape His notice and be used for His purpose…which is our good and His glory. I find He uses His faithfulness to woo me to Himself. In moments when fear is looming, anxiety is building, sin is knocking at the door, disappointment seems inevitable, He reminds me of His faithfulness and kindness…His way of making the impossible, possible…and I can turn away from my own thoughts, my own vision, my own feelings and trust Him. His faithfulness time and time again prove His goodness and kindness…and compel me to run to Him rather than camp out in despair or fear or doubt.
Who keeps His covenant and steadfast love…I know very little of covenant keeping or steadfast love. I know much of broken promises and fickle feelings. I know conditional love. I know obligatory love. I know love I have to earn or work to keep. I know love that can quickly turn to hate…or at least look like it. I know love that probably doesn’t qualify for more than mild regard. I have both received and given each type of sad excuse for love…and broken more than my share of promises. But God is God…and He is the faithful God…and both His promises and love are sure. He will keep His word, always…and He will love us with an everlasting love, always. Nothing can change that. I am reminded of Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To a thousand generations…not one generation, or five or 10…but a thousand!
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20).
His blessing goes on and on and on…His faithfulness knows no end…His love goes on forever!
personal postscript...I have been wanting to start a scripture memory program...and a friend of mine was kind enough to give me a shove by sharing the verse she was doing with her family today. It really couldn't have come at a better time. I was fretting over a situation with my neice. She has been going to a sitter and something in her behavior since has caused me to fear for her. I wasn't praying...or prayerfully considering what I should do...I was thinking on all the horrible possibilities and what steps I needed to take. As tears formed in my eyes for the fourth or fifth time today, I thought of this verse...God is God and He is faithful and He loves us...to a thousand generations. That covers it all. There is nothing so dreadful that He can't make good...or use to make us better. And by posturing myself to obey, I am better able to think and hear clearly...and am in a better place to receive blessing...which will flow to my neice and her neice and so on and so on...
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