His Mercy Endures Forever

 ^1" Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
         For His mercy endures forever.
 ² Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
         For His mercy endures forever.
 ³ Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
         For His mercy endures forever:"  Psalm 136:1-3 (NKJV)

Do you ever read your Bible and come across something new to you?  I mean, you may have read it somewhere or heard it, but as you're reading through, you read something and wonder why you never spent time thinking on that before.  That was Psalm 136 for me this morning.  What a firecracker of a chapter in the Bible!  It has a resounding theme, that God is Good and His mercy endures forever!

So I went to the dictionary to see exactly what endures means, and I found that it means "to continue in the same state, to last" and there I thought that the important word was "same".   God doesn't change, and His mercy will last and never change as well.  Forever literally means just that- forever, until the end of time, never-ending.   So if you think on these verses in that context, there is just such an enveloping peace about reading and seeing that God is good, and His mercy endures forever!

God doesn't change, and that's one of the things I love about reading my Bible.  I can read about something that God did and because He doesn't change, the same God who provided for the widow woman in Zarephath is the same God who watches over us today.

"So she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
¹³ And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’”
¹⁵ So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many¹⁶ The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah."  1 Kings 17:12-16 (NKJV) days.

I love reading that story over and over.  I love reading how this woman listened to the prophet, and didn't question him.  She just believed that Elijah was a man of God, and did as he said, and it totally paid off.  She found herself and her family provided for over and over.  Think about that.  Every time she dipped into that jar of flour or the jar of oil, she was reminded of the goodness of God, and how He was being faithful to her.

The same God who caused that jar of flour to always have flour in it is the same God that we worship today.  If he would do that for one woman, He would do that for many.  And I believe that with all my heart.

This past weekend with family was a wonderful weekend.  I'm not quite ready to let it go and get back to normal, because it just felt like Christmas, spending time with everyone.  But do you know that the devil totally tried to rob us of our joy this weekend?  Saturday morning we discovered that Andy had not gotten paid this past week like he was supposed to.  And that could have totally wrecked the weekend as we worried about not having money for gas, groceries, or checks hitting the bank when there were no funds to cover them.  But do you know, that for once, neither of us was worried about it.  We both knew that something must have gone wrong on his works end, and it would be put to rights when the new business week started.  Even better though, God is God, and He knew there was going to be a snafu of that sort, so God provided an odd job for Andy last week that paid him a bit of cash.  More than enough for gas, groceries, and any emergency need that could come up while we wait for that paycheck to be righted.

God is faithful to us even before we know we need Him to be faithful.  His mercy endures forever! Andy's paycheck will be corrected by tomorrow, and we still had the most wonderful weekend, because we refused to allow the devil to rob us of the joy of family and thankfulness.

God is good.  And as we go into a busy week ahead, I am still feeling so incredibly thankful.  I'm thankful for the weekend with family, and I am looking forward to the beginning of the Christmas season. 


"Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven!
         For His mercy endures forever."  Psalm 136:26 (NKJV)