GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not
consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3: 21-23 (NIV©1984)

It is the first Monday of the new year. We often groan over the dawn of another Monday because we don’t want to face the loss of carefreeness we experienced over the previous weekend. You will always dread Monday if you don’t eagerly embrace the excitement of a new week, in work, family, relationships and activities. If you don’t like your work but can’t quit, find an avocation you can be passionate about. You might take up a hobby you’d postponed enjoying. Or, you might begin a small, side business. It may grow to become your major source of income or it may provide satisfaction and interest, well into retirement. You do not have to hate the whole new day God has given you.

Start a scrapbook of Monday blessings. God is faithful and will bless you every day, including Monday mornings. Rather than being consumed with your own self-pity over having to get up on Monday morning—poor baby—give praises to his holy name for the opportunity to get up and receive his blessings on the first day of each week. Then, write down the blessings in your scrapbook. If you can’t feel or recognize the brush of angel wings in your morning, then you are still focused on yourself—oh, ain’t it awful?!

God is faithful and will bless you with his compassionate love. How do I know? Because, he is God and that is the nature of God, as described by Jeremiah when he remembered God’s faithfulness. That memory changed Jeremiah’s mood.

We too can change our mood on Monday morning as we remember God’s faithfulness and the promise of his blessings. Our mood can change if we want it to. If we get more milage out of being down and dreadful, then we have no need to become happy and content as we remember the faithfulness of God. So, by focusing on our woes, we reject God’s blessing and cling to our dark feeling. We miss angel kisses and the warm embrace of the Lord, each new day. Let us pray:

"Holy Father God, so very great is your faithfulness. Your compassions, they fail not. We would stumble every day and lay in a deep puddle of our own wretched feelings, if you did not pick us up as we remember you, and as we re-experience you every morning—even Monday mornings. Let us always remember that you live in the freshness of a new week. You seek to bless us every time we open our eyes. Why would we reject you, simply because we must get out of bed? Forgive us for the many times we have not wanted to greet you by opening our eyes. Let this be the first day we recognize and remember every one of your Monday blessings. You send angels to kiss our eyelids and wake us from slumber. We want those encounters, those sweet whispers of love every day, and not reject one-seventh of your love and compassion—those that happen on Mondays. May we be a blessing to someone every single first-day of our lives, as we share your love with others. In the name of Jesus, your son, the true example of your love and faithfulness, we pray. Amen"

Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine."
Copyright 2013 Doris Gaines Rapp