Dear Prayer Partner,
As we start a new year, I am mindful of the Lord's faithfulness. I wanted to share this excerpt from the book "Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions"
GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS
Thomas O. Chisholm, 1866-1960
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 3:22, 23)
One of the important lessons the Children of Israel had to learn during their
wilderness journey was that God's provision of manna for them was on a morning
by morning basis. They could not survive on old manna nor could it be stored
for future use (Exodus 16:19-21).
While many enduring hymns are born out of a particular dramatic experience,
this was simply the result of the author's "morning by morning"
realization of God's personal faithfulness in his daily life. Shortly before
his death in 1960, Thomas Chisholm wrote:
My income has never been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier
years which has followed me on until now. But I must not fail to record here
the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He has given
me many wonderful displays of His providing care which have filled me with
astonishing gratefulness. Thomas Obediah Chisholm was born in a crude log
cabin in Franklin, Kentucky. From this humble beginning and without the benefit
of high school or advanced education, he somehow began his career as a school
teacher at the age of 16 in the same country school where he had received
his elementary training. After accepting Christ as Savior, he became editor
of The Pentecostal Herald and later was ordained as a Methodist minister.
Throughout his long lifetime, Mr. Chisholm wrote more than 1,200 sacred poems,
many of which have since become prominent hymn texts.
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning
with Thee; Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not: As thou hast
been Thou forever wilt be.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their
courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness,
mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer
and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow-blessings all
mine, with ten thousand beside.
Chorus: Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning
new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided-Great is Thy faithfulness,
Lord, unto me.
For Today: Psalm 9:10; 36:5-7; 102:11, 12; James 1:17
Live with this spirit of grateful praise-
In Him,
Nancy
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1 Osbeck, K.W. (1990). Amazing Grace: 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions (348). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications.