December 6 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9).

Devotional

Faith has something still more substantial and firm to rest upon than even the Divine declarations of the truth, something superior to the assertion of the promise—even the faithfulness of the Divine Promiser himself. Here is where faith has its stronghold—not only the Word of God, but the God of the Word.

God must be faithful because he is essentially true and unchangeable—"He cannot deny himself" (2 Tim. 2:13); "God, who never lies" (Titus 1:2); "It is impossible for God to lie" (Heb. 6:18). What declarations of any truth can be stronger?

And now, O believer, trust in God as true to his Word, and faithful to his promises. Has the Spirit, the Comforter, caused your soul to rely upon his promises, to hope in his Word? Do you have nothing but the naked declaration to bear you up? Stand fast to this Word, for God, who cannot lie, stands by to make it good. Have faith in his faithfulness.

In doubting him you cannot dishonor him more. If to discredit the word of man were an impeachment of his veracity, and if that impeachment were the darkest blot that you could let fall upon his character, then what must be the dishonor done to God by a poor sinful mortal distrusting his faithfulness, and questioning his truth?

But "God is faithful." Trust him as such. He is engaged to perfect that which concerns you, to supply all your need, to guide your soul through the wilderness, to cover your head in the day of battle, and to conduct you to ultimate victory and rest. Oh, trust him. It is all that he asks of you.

Is it now with you a day of trouble? A season of pressure? Is your position perilous? Are your present circumstances embarrassed? Now is the time to trust in the Lord. "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me" (Ps. 50:15).

Oh, if God were to speak audibly to you right now, I think the words that he would utter would be along this line: "Have faith in my faithfulness. Have I ever been untrue to my engagements? Have I ever been false to my Word? Have I ever been forgetful of my covenant? Have I ever been neglectful of my people? Have I been a wilderness to you? What evil have you found in me, what untruth, what wavering, what instability, what change, that you do not now trust me in this the time of your need? Oh, let your soul be humbled that you should ever have doubted the truth, have distrusted the faithfulness of your God."

But "if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself" (2 Tim. 2:13); "God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he" (Deut. 32:4).

"Great is thy faithfulness"

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.