Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
The Inspiring Journey of Great Is Thy Faithfulness
What if you could find an unwavering source of trust in a world full of uncertainties? Join me, Danny Mac, as we explore this profound question through the lens of the timeless hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." You'll discover the fascinating story of Thomas Chisholm, whose life of health challenges and career shifts served as the backdrop for writing words that continue to resonate with audiences today. Despite its initial lukewarm reception, this hymn soared to prominence thanks to the passionate advocacy of Dr. Will Houghton and its adoption by the Moody Bible Institute.
Reflect on the powerful promise of God's faithfulness amidst life's trials, as we draw inspiration from scriptures like Lamentations 3:22-23 and Deuteronomy 7:9. In a time where trust is frequently tested, these verses remind us of divine assurances that remain steadfast. Together, we celebrate these eternal promises and find comfort in knowing that, while people may stumble, God's love and faithfulness are unchanging. So, grab your coffee, settle in, and find encouragement for your day as we celebrate the enduring promise of God's faithfulness.
Here is the youtube link to Great is Thy Faithfulness.
https://youtu.be/NT0HcAr9aeI
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Good morning everyone, and welcome to Music Monday.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to look at the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness, written in 1923 by Thomas Chisholm. He based this hymn on Lamentations, chapter 3, verses 22 and 23, which says His compassions fail not, they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. And the promise of God's faithfulness is really important to us because we can find ourselves in a place where we don't know who we can trust in this world. We hear politicians making declarations and promises and then finding out that the things that they have said are absolutely not true. The other problem is that we are also seeing marriages fall apart at a faster and greater rate than ever before, so people are losing trust in those who are even the most close to them. And in the middle of it all, we are wondering who can we trust? Who will give us the truth? Who will stand by us when we need them? Well, the answer is, of course, that God will be. Let me tell you just a little bit more about Thomas Chisholm.
Speaker 1:Throughout his life, young Chisholm had many health issues. Maintaining a job was very difficult, and so he went from employment to unemployment, and between those bouts of illness he did everything from selling insurance to journalism to some evangelistic work. But through all those ups and downs he truly discovered that there were new blessings from God every morning, just as is declared in Lamentations 3. He said that while he was serving the Lord in New Jersey he had written some poems and sent them to his friend William Runyon. Runyon loved Great Is Thy Faithfulness and decided to write the music for it. And this poem was so important to Runyon that he decided not to write the music hurriedly. But he spent a tremendous amount of time praying and seeking God so that he would put just the right music to these powerful words. Chisholm said that at first the reception to the song was somewhat lackluster, but then Dr Will Houghton of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago discovered it and he would say in chapel well, I think we shall have to sing Great is Thy Faithfulness. And it eventually became the unofficial theme song for the Institute, but still still, the song remained relatively unknown until it became popular around the world when it was sung by George Beverly Shea and the choirs of the Billy Graham Crusade.
Speaker 1:As soon as the people discovered the power of the music and the impact of the words, they began to understand that this is a promise. This is a declaration that we need to hang on to. Great is thy faithfulness, o God, my Father. There are times when we are struggling with who to trust and who to hang on to. There are times when we don't know where the answer is going to come from. We try our best, to do our best, and yet we sometimes find ourselves continuing to fail and we wonder how things will ever turn around. The most important thing that this song declares, and what we must never, ever forget, is that people may let you down, but God never will.
Speaker 1:I want to read you some more verses that declare God's faithfulness to us. Deuteronomy, chapter 7, and verse 9 says to us Deuteronomy, chapter 7 and verse 9 says Know, therefore, that the Lord, your God, is God and he is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments Over in Psalm 33 and verse 4, for the word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all that he does. Psalm 86 and verse 15,. But you, o Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. And from all of these scriptures, and from many, many more, we can know that the definition of God's faithfulness is that God will always do what he has promised to do. And that's when we need to remember that, although we may fail and others may fail us, god is faithful. We can hang on to His promises and hang on to His Word and know that he is with us always.
Speaker 1:I'm going to leave you with just a short section of Great is Thy Faithfulness this morning, and I'm going to include in your show notes today a link to a YouTube version of it, sung by Carrie Underwood and CeCce Winans. You will enjoy it. They do it beautifully. I hope you all have a great day. My friends, we will talk again tomorrow and remember great is God's faithfulness to is thy faithfulness, morning by morning, new mercies I see.
Speaker 2:All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, lord, unto me.
