The significant life circumstances I dreamed and prayed for never occurred. Even ones I thought I had obtained, slipped through my fingers, seemingly lost over a decade ago. If I were to judge (as if I have the right to) God's faithfulness based on my hopes and dreams coming true (all good by the way), I would have projected the character of the enemy onto God because I didn't get the things I prayed for. How isolating and lonely it becomes when the loving eternal Creator is mischaracterized as the enemy.
Thank goodness his faithfulness is not hindered by my shortsightedness, limited to my personal earthly years, or confined to my personal hopes and dreams coming true.
His faithfulness journeys eternally backwards as he is Alpha (the beginning), and eternally forwards as he is Omega (the end).
The covenant he made was not a covenant that says, "I will get all that I want in this life in just the way I want it," that would have been a cruel, shallow, and short sited covenant for a deity to make. That kind of covenant sounds more like something you can pick up from "Burger King" rather than something from the King of kings, if you know what I mean! :)
God's covenant of love has far deeper implications.
"The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments." Deut. 7:7-9
The promises God made to Abraham, including the blessing of all nations through his descendants (Genesis 12:3), find their fulfillment in Jesus! Jesus is the culmination of God's big plan for redemption! Jesus, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died in my place, paying for all my wrongs, rose from the dead proving he was who he said he was, so that upon childlike faith and belief in him alone for salvation, I might be set free from death, and inherit eternal life! My hopes and dreams for family and temporal, material things, does not even come close to comparing to his grand gift of eternal hope that included the rescue of all humanity from the ultimate jaws of death, the ability to be adopted into his family, and brought the eternal kingdom of his Son!
"If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise!" Galatian 3:29
The deeper implication is
He WILL redeem all that is broken one day
and THAT is faithfulness.
He WILL receive me upon death into his presence so that when I die, I won't cease to live
and that IS faithfulness.
He has forgiven all my sins in Christ
and that is FAITHFULNESS.
Consider his faithfulness from a panned out, wide angle eternal lens today and let that fuel your praise of his faithfulness, even if the temporary dreams have crumbled. One day, ALL things WILL be redeemed, faith WILL become sight and it will all make sense. Consider releasing the need to have it all figured out right now and consider what living in the flow of his eternal faithfulness might look like, sound like, taste like, feel like just for today, just for this moment.
- Carrie Breedlove MS, LPC
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