Morning By Morning

 

O

ne of my favorite hymns is “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”  There is a passage in the refrain that speaks of God’s faithfulness to us on a daily basis, “Morning by morning His mercies I see.  All I have needed Thy hand has provided. Great is they faithfulness, Lord unto me.” 

 

This is something we don’t often think about when we consider our relationship to God. We speak of God’s love, we talk about His mercy, we are thankful for His grace, but how often do we stop and consider God’s faithfulness to us?  Usually, we speak of our faithfulness in attending church, in putting the tithe into the offering plate, of serving on one committee after another, in having a dedicated prayer time which we never miss, and the list goes on and on almost to the point of nausea.  

 

Yet this hymn speaks of God’s faithfulness, something we really need to think about this morning.  There is no better place, in my opinion, to begin our understanding of God’s faithfulness than the opening passages of the Bible, in the book of Genesis.  Here, in the opening verses of His word, God teaches us and shows us how faithful He is.  Genesis 1:5 says, “God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.” 

 

Please notice the last sentence of this passage.  The words “the first day” jumped into my mind as I sat at the breakfast table this morning.  With the change of time, it is still dark in the morning and as the day progresses, the first tendrils of light creep into the sky, dispelling the night and heralding the arrival of day.  But at some point, there was a first day, a day when the sun rose for the first time, a day when all the trees and flowers and animals basked in the splendor of that first morning.  And God was there. 

 

Think about that, God was there on the first day and He was there for the second.  In fact, He has been present for every sunrise and every sunset from the beginning.  How many days has that been?  How many sunsets has God painted?  These are things we seldom, if ever, think about but we need to think about them and realize we serve a God who is faithful.   

 

We wake up in the morning, charged for the day, thinking of all the things we must accomplish before we retire at night.  We have to work, pay bills, buy groceries, clean house, and do various and other projects that pop up during the day.  What if every living thing on the planet depended on us?  What if it were our responsibility to make sure the universe was constantly in working order?  What if it were our task to keep every heart on earth beating and ensuring there was enough food, water, air, etc. for everything to survive 24 more hours?  In comparison to the tasks we have to accomplish, our concerns are so very insignificant, aren’t they? 

 

Morning by morning we see God’s faithfulness.  Every dawn is a testimony to the fact that God watches over His creation. Nothing escapes His attention.  When birds fall, He knows all about it and when His children cry out to Him, He hears us.  He keeps our hearts beating, He supplies us with all our needs, and He is constantly working to conform us all to the image of His son, Jesus Christ.  How about that for a daily “To Do List?” 

 

This morning or this afternoon or perhaps even this evening, take time out to sit still and think about God’s faithfulness and then make it personal.  God is faithful to you.  As a Christian, He has promised to supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.  What a wonderful and what an awesome God we serve.  A God who loves us, who protects us, who provides for us—a God who is faithful morning by morning!