God's Eternal Purpose: God is Faithful 100%

One thing I forgot to mention about my new devotional guide is that it provides an opening prayer for the week, time for Bible reading, prayer for church/self/others, and a closing prayer. I'm finding this guide to be very beneficial in balancing my quiet time, and this morning's prayer started like this:

Everything is futile. Though it may not seem so at first, this was encouraging to me, perhaps because I recently read Ecclesiastes. Of course, it is not just that all is futile, but the prayer reminded me that I am calling out to a God "without whom all purposes are futile". Just as yesterday, I remembered that my littleness emphasizes God's greatness, today I remember that the futility of much of what we do underscores the magnificence of God's eternal plan.

Consider God's Faithfulness

⁵ “With whom will you compare me or count me equal?
To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?
⁶ Some pour out gold from their bags
and weigh out silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god,
and they bow down and worship it.
⁷ They lift it to their shoulders and carry it;
they set it up in its place, and there it stands.
From that spot it cannot move.
Even though someone cries out to it, it cannot answer;
it cannot save them from their troubles. ~Isaiah 46:5-7

When first considering this theme, I wrote "God is in control 100%." Then I thought, no that's not quite right. It may give a false impression. While God is capable of being in control of everything, He has chosen to give us the give of free will. So, upon deeper consideration, what I meant by saying God is in complete control is that God is completely faithful... to all of His promises, even that of free will.

Consider the text above from Psalm 46. God saw His people who He had created celebrating and honoring other gods that meant nothing, that "cannot move" and "cannot answer" and "cannot save them from troubles" (v. 7). His people, instead of coming to Him, for help were consulting fake images and empty statues. I can't even imagine how strange and upsetting it must be. Perhaps some shallow representation may be when my students consult online resources and plagiarize awful papers instead of coming to me for help. But even worse, we see the God of all, the Creator of all, to worthless statues which they have paid a goldsmith to make.

And still... God is faithful in two ways in this passage. He is faithful in the free will that He offers to His people, and He is faithful to those who call out to Him. The contrast clearly shows that while the graven statues of gold do not respond, God does "move", "answer", and "save [His people] from troubles". How wonderful!

Remember God's Faithfulness

⁸ “Remember this, keep it in mind,
take it to heart, you rebels.
⁹ Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
¹⁰ I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come. ~Isaiah 46:8-10

In fact, the second part of Isaiah speaks just of this. In order to keep God as the only God in our lives, first and foremost in our hearts, we must remember His faithfulness. We need to remember those things from long ago and not so long ago. While we can remember those instances in the Bible when God was there to save His people, we can also remember how God has rescued us and our loved ones recently. I remember praying for my brother to get a steady job in DC; now he has work that he so thoroughly enjoys that it makes me very happy to see him. I remember praying for my cousin Cyndi and her pregnancy as well as my cousin Marisa, and both now have adorable baby girls! I remember praying for God to bring a man into my life; and now I am happily married to a man that I could only dream up. God has been faithful in so many ways. Sometimes we only need to think back to remember His faithfulness. There is none like Him.

If you haven't experienced God's faithfulness, perhaps you haven't been praying. Though it often takes a long time (I never met Brad until I was 26, but I was praying long before that.) and though we sometimes get answers that we dislike, it is all for His good. We are commanded to pray without ceasing, cast all our cares upon Him, and to seek Him first. Enter into prayer today... for your church, for your loved ones, for yourself.

Affirming God's Faithfulness

I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
¹¹ From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
what I have planned, that I will do. ~Isaiah 46:10-11

In this last part of Isaiah, God affirms His faithfulness, in a way that reminded me of Dr. Seuss' Horton the Elephant, in fact. Verse 11 says, "What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do." Horton states,

"I said what I meant, and I meant what I said,

An elephants faithful, 100 percent."

In a similar way, Isaiah seems to say,

"I planned what I meant, and I meant what I planned,

Our God is faithful 100 percent."

What a beautiful message to take away today, to remember that God will carry out His plans. Whether it depends upon summoning a bird (v. 11) or a man (v.11) to fulfill that purpose, God will do it. He is in control of the ultimate plan. Perhaps this can relieve us of some of our worry. While it is good to always be mindful of God's will for our lives, perhaps we can rest knowing that God is faithful. If we are listening and bending our hearts toward Him, we will hear and know when something is right or something is wrong. It might be closed doors or opened doors, but what God has said, He will bring about.

Praise be to the Lord and His faithfulness in fulfilling His good eternal purposes.