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Thought For The Month
Great is Thy Faithfulness
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
(Lamentations 3.22, 23 NRSV)
Great is Thy faithfulness, 0 God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee,
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou for ever wilt be.
Thomas O Chisholm
One of the greatest human needs is someone on whom to rely, someone to trust in times of stress and weakness, someone from whom to ask advice when problems press and anxieties take away peace of mind. Human nature is fickle, weak and often unwise. Friends betray friends and are found wanting when most needed. Promises are broken, trust turns to treachery, the sheltering arms are missing, the heart cold where once love was used to lean. How lonely then the situation, how dismal the aspect, how hard the conflict if there is no sympathetic affection, no wise counsel, no firm hand-clasp to comfort, guide, encourage through those sorrows, mazes and struggles which come into every human life. If there is nowhere to turn, if there are none to help, what then?
People have called on God in extremity as upon some genie who ought to succour them. When their trouble was past, God was promptly forgotten, as previously He had been scarcely recognised. This is poor treatment of one who never fails in His goodness to send rain on the just and the unjust, make His sun shine, to light the night with moon and stars. His many coloured bow still spans the rain-washed heavens, the seas keep their appointed places; of His many promises to men, not one has failed. "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease".
The Earth, fertilised by His bountiful hand, yields abundance to satisfy the needs of every living creature. Human greed, selfishness and pride spoil the good that God does. Man fails but God keeps faith. He will always keep faith. If He must chastise it is that He may make man more worthy of His blessings. He calls, He begs, He invites all people to turn to Him, to come with all their load of care and find rest and peace. "Turn unto me and live", is one of the great invitations of God. He promises, He provides and He gives. Should such faithfulness go unaccepted by the needy, unpraised by those who have found their every need abundantly supplied by His generosity? Nay before the day begins, turn to Him for all its needs.
His faithfulness provides a safe conduct all the way. Purse, provisions, protection, guide, counsel, rest and vigour, all come from the same bounteous source. How often might pilgrims perish without them, but because "his compassions fail not" they run without being weary, they are able to walk without growing faint.
TH
Past from us
Sister Fannie Harrison (Manchester & Warrington)
Sister Jessie Norman (Chesham)
Brother Harry Beswick (Manchester)
Till the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
