We often think of abundance this time of year. Our tables are abundant with food. Our homes are abundant with friends and family. We are reminded of our abundance of blessings as our posture bends toward gratefulness and thanksgiving.
Conversely, when we think about God’s faithfulness during November, we are often drawn to think about abundance. What has He given us in abundance? Faithfulness and abundance seem to go hand-in-hand when we are sliding napkins into rings and holding hands for prayer and carving a turkey. God is faithful in His abundance.
I’m going to give you a little peek behind the scenes of the Lifeway Women: All Access blog. We came up with this title and topic months ago. We sat around before the leaves even changed their colors and someone mentioned abundance and Thanksgiving. Someone else came up with the title, “God’s Faithfulness in Abundance.” I volunteered or was assigned to write the post (we don’t remember). The blog header was designed, the draft created, the newsletter written and edited and scheduled. It was all done in advance. Except the writing.
We did not know when we decided to write about God’s Faithfulness in Abundance that what our world would have in abundance this November was fear and hurt and anger. God’s faithfulness can be more difficult to find amidst that sort of abundance.
But an interesting thing happened when I typed “abundant” and “faithful” into the concordance online. Passages on abundance included many accounts of abundant crops and abundant riches and abundant life, mercy, love. But passages that included both “abundant” and “faithful” almost all included the word “compassion.”
Nehemiah asks God to, “Remember me for this also, my God, and look on me with compassion in keeping with Your abundant, faithful love” (13:22). Similarly, in Psalm 51:1, David asks in repentance, “Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithful love; according to Your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.”
But Psalm 69 and Lamentations 3 take a different note. These are passages from the hearts of David and Jeremiah* pleading with their God. They are overwhelmed with sorrow. David cries, “I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing; I have come into deep waters, and a flood sweeps over me” (v. 2). He even says, “I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God” (v. 3). Jeremiah begins the third chapter of Lamentations (the very name of the book implies bemoaning), “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.”
These men of God are experiencing an abundance of hurt. Our world knows what that feels like right now. Perhaps you know what that feels like. Perhaps you feel like hurt is the only thing you have in abundance in this season. These men, inspired by the very breath of God as they wrote (2 Tim. 3:16), knew pain in abundance.
And yet, they also knew God’s faithfulness in abundance. They knew their God and they knew He was compassionate and faithful and would not leave them alone in their pain.
After crying out to God about his pain and hurt, Jeremiah says in verses 21-24, “Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say: The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him.” He begins to preach God’s goodness to himself. He has hope because God is faithful in abundance.
While Jeremiah was still in pain, he began to hope for the future. He began to lean into God’s character of faithfulness. In verses 31-32, he says, “For the Lord will not reject us forever. Even if He causes suffering, He will show compassion according to His abundant, faithful love.” Jeremiah had hope because it is in God’s character to be compassionate, to give abundance, to be faithful, and to be love.
In the same way, Psalm 69 turns from David’s mourning to God’s character in verse 13: “But as for me, Lord, my prayer to You is for a time of favor. In Your abundant, faithful love, God, answer me with Your sure salvation.” David, like Jeremiah, hoped in who God is. He knew God is compassionate and that His love is faithful and abundant. He knew God’s salvation is the only true hope we have.
God is faithful in abundance. He is faithful to give an abundance of life (John 10:10) that we might live with Him forever. He is faithful to give an abundance of good things, things that grow our character to be more like His (Rom. 8:28-29). And He is faithful to give an abundance of His compassion when we are suffering. God is faithful in every kind of abundance.
Psalm 69 ends with thanksgiving. When faced with God’s character of compassionate, abundant, and faithful love, thanksgiving is the only appropriate response.
I will praise God’s name with song
and exalt Him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:30
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We want you to join us for an Abundance event. Join together with women from all walks of life for this two-day event to explore the sufficiency and generosity of Christ through abundance. Authors and teachers like Lisa Harper, Kelly Minter, Lysa TerKeurst, and Annie Downs will explore how embracing God’s abundance transforms each area of our lives—in difficult seasons and in high places. More information and how to register here.
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Elizabeth Hyndman is a content & production editor and social media strategist for Lifeway Women. You can follow her on Twitter @edhyndman. She also writes at her blog edhyndman.com.
*We don’t know for sure who wrote Lamentations, but traditionally it is attributed to Jeremiah.