“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22,23
In Psalm 118, we find written concerning the subject of a “day,” “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (v.24) Why does the Psalmist, by the Spirit of God, speak of the importance of the present day, and how we are to approach it, and live in it? It stems from the fact, as the Psalmist begins His psalm: “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” (v.1) The importance of a day, a creation of God, is found in the subject of God’s goodness and mercy. In the period of a day’s time, God desires and wills to reveal His glory through the creation, but even more so in and through the lives of those who truly belong to Him. God has brought the church into existence by the new birth of every member, so that Christ’s life should be revealed, and manifested to the world. One of the most wonderful aspects of this Life of Christ, dwelling in every believing heart, is the fact that it is unchanging, always NEW. In that Life there is no flaw, failure, fault, or faithlessness. It is not touched or influenced to the point of change. The “goodness and mercy” of the blessed life of God the Father, and His Son, revealed by the Spirit, is the same for the Psalmist as for Jeremiah, when he wrote of God’s very present mercies revealed to mankind, to be known by all men. His compassions fail not. Why? Because they are just as immutable and unchanging as Christ Himself. It is then that he adds: “They are NEW (even fresh, vibrant, living) every morning.” On the basis of this great truth, not only concerning one’s union with Christ, with this blessed Eternal Life, but also with respect to His unchanging character by the Spirit, comes the admonition to the believer to lay hold of the fact that God is faithful in all of His dealings with us. Hence, Jeremiah writes: “Great is Your faithfulness.” Practically speaking, how is the believer to live in light of the great truth of one’s union with Christ, and at the same time, on a day-by-day basis, know and enjoy the reality of Christ’s presence and power manifested in its newness and goodness?
True Christian experience always begins with the truth. So, from Jeremiah’s writings let us go to those of the Apostle Paul, who wrote: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:9) Paul tells us that the faithfulness of God is fully associated with His eternal calling of every believer with regard to fellowship, or communion, with Christ. John the Apostle would add to this great truth that, “…truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 Jn. 1:3) In other words, God has ordained that, on a daily, even moment by moment basis, His great calling of the sinner out of darkness into His most marvelous light, is a calling to know and walk with Him in fulness of fellowship. Will it be a perfect experience of this on this earth? No, but it can be an increasing reality as one seeks God, worshipping Him in Spirit and truth. The fellowship with the Father and the Son by the Spirit will certainly exceed what the believer can ask or think since God’s mercies, and compassions are NEW every morning.
Secondly, God will finish the work in the believer which He has begun. Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thess. 5:23) He then adds, “Faithful is He who calls you who also will do it.” The believer is called to trust daily in the faithfulness of God.
Dear Father, Accomplish fully Thy will. In Jesus’ name, Amen.