Beloved, yesterday was my mother’s birthday. She went to heaven when I was twenty-five years old. On the 11th was my sister-in-love birthday and she also is in heaven. Sometimes, grief is often like a roller coaster and you thought the ride was going to be fun but there were a few surprises along the way. So, as I looked down at the date, sweet memories flooded my brain. My mother loved to laugh. My sister-in-love loved life to the fullest, she rode a motorbike.

Verse

Our verse is found in Deuteronomy 6:5

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

We also read this in Matthew 22: 36-40

“Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.”

Word

Our word is faithfulness. Faithfulness is defined as the quality of being faithful; fidelity. Faithfulness is in the Bible 55 times. When I think of a verse I think of Lamentations 3: 22-23

Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,^[h]
for his mercies never end.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!

This morning Dr. David Jeremiah preached on God’s faithfulness. https://www.davidjeremiah.org/television/weekend?date=2024-01-14

God has not forsaken us. In God’s word, God’s faithfulness rings true. We have been reading in Genesis of God being faithful and we will continue to see God’s faithfulness play out. His faithfulness started with the promise of Jesus in Genesis 3.

Hope can escape us when we are in the midst of grief or if we are in the middle of a trial such as illness or never-ending pain. Fear can overwhelm us when we love our loved one and he or she is struggling. Hope can be a fragile emotion, fleeting, and frail, and yet. God is faithful.

God has given us everything. We have God’s indwelling Holy Spirit. We have God’s power through salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ.

H’s is^[a] divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by^[b] his own glory and goodness. ⁴ By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. 2 Peter 3: 3=4

In Dr. David Jeremiah’s book, Encouraging Words, he uses the illustration of charging your phone only to find that it was not plugged into electricity. We have everything we need to get through the difficult times, grief, and even the happy times because we have the Holy Spirit and God’s Word.

We read in 2 Peter 3:4 of God’s promises, 30,000 promises in the Bible. In his sermon this morning, God’s word will never not be printed. What a reassuring thought. Did you know the last word of the Bible is Amen? Are you claiming any of his promises?

Dr. David writes

Somewhere in every single verse of the Bible, explicit or implicit,

Is a Promise.

God’s promises are infallible and available. His mercies are new every morning. What a promise.

Our reading is Genesis 30-33.

God is faithful to keep his promises.

Prayer

Father God, you are faithful and your promises are true. Thank you, great is your faithfulness. Thank you for answering our prayers. Thank you for the memories of my family. Help anyone struggling with grief. Let them claim a promise. In Jesus’s name, amen.