Yesterday morning it was raining! Really raining!
Well if you live in the Netherlands you might say ‘nothing unusual about that in September’! Or in October, November, December…. only joking!
Actually with being from the UK originally, it is not like we never saw rain there : )
It is not the rain so much that I want to mention briefly here though. Rather what comes to mind is the bright, intensely focussed rainbow painted boldly across the sky. Rainbows are something that I always love to see.
I remained looking at the rainbow for a couple of minutes before needing to jump in the car and take one of our children to school. A verse from the Bible came to mind:
The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving towards all he has made. (Psalm 145:13)
Do we believe that?
I don’t know what you think about the story of Noah and the flood. I am not sure how much the Russell Crowe movie gave light to help on it? Yet whatever you may think about the flood account, one of the things we can read is about God making a covenant (check out Genesis 9)
A covenant is an agreement usually between two parties with various conditions and responsibilities. Yet we see again and again in the Bible, God making covenant commitments that come from Him not us. In this case, the rainbow is deemed a sign of such an agreement and promise by God.
He is faithful to all His promises. Do we believe that?
Storms of life will come, circumstances can flood in and seem like we are engulfed. In the world around us of course we see all kinds of difficulties – be it the fighting in Syria and Iraq for instance or the refugee situation here within the European Union. It can seem overwhelming of how to respond (and we need the wisdom and compassion from the Lord to know how to best do so).
It could be easy to read words like from Psalm 145 and ask where is God? To question is He faithful? Especially if life seems difficult at present.
Actually it is not a bad thing to ask such questions at times. It can be an honest thing to do – check out Psalm 13 for instance which begins
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
Real, earthy cries from the heart!
If you read through that song, there is a wrestling, a struggle taking place as the writer (David) works through what is overwhelming him like a flood.
He gets to a place though where he can declare,
But I trust in your unfailing love (Psalm 13:5)
Why? Because David has faced up to the tough stuff but even in the midst of unanswered questions, he knows afresh that God is faithful. He keeps His promises, He remembers the covenants He has made. Ultimately that is seen through the ‘new covenant’ brought in through Jesus Christ. (More on that next time I write here).
He is faithful to all His promises. Do we believe that?
Andy