Seeing God’s Faithfulness in the
Ordinary Life of Thomas Chisholm
THE HYMN
Many of us know the popular hymn, “Great
is Thy Faithfulness.” The chorus concludes
with, “All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!” Unlike
other hymns that were written under dire
circumstances, like “It is Well With My Soul,”
which was written by Horatio Spafford after
he lost his four daughters in a shipwreck1,
“Great is Thy Faithfulness” was written
under humdrum circumstances.
We often look for signs of God’s
faithfulness, though we also often
ascribe our own standards to what God’s
faithfulness should look like. To one it
means getting a promotion, to another
having the perfect marriage or family life,
and to another having a wonderful house that
impresses your friends. Or maybe faithfulness
means a miraculous healing for you or a loved
one, or freedom for a child who is struggling with
addiction. While the Lord does indeed show up
in many of these ways, it is not guaranteed that
His faithfulness to us will appear in the exact way
we would expect. Nevertheless, the Lord is always
faithful to us and to His Word, which will always
accomplish what He desires and never return to
Him empty (Isaiah 55:11).
We do not need to be rescued from life-threatening
danger or see God’s miraculous provision
in the direst of financial crises to truly know the
faithfulness of the Lord. These are certainly blessings
and dramatic illustrations of His goodness, but
we should not rely on them as the only examples.
God remains faithful day in and day out, even in
the smallest and most mundane circumstances.
This was a lesson that the children of Israel had
to learn. There were undoubtedly extraordinary
examples of God’s faithfulness, such as when He
parted the waters during the Exodus or sent manna
NOVEMBER 2018 / THE CHOSEN PEOPLE - 4