But This I Call To Mind... God Is Faithful

Church Family:
The providence of God is not cold fate; it is His sovereign and loving hand wisely governing every detail of our lives. Sometimes in this life there befalls us a difficult providence of God. This is when a challenging or seemingly negative event in life, which is still under God’s sovereign control and part of His divine plan, is directed toward us by God’s loving and purposeful hand. We do not ask for a dark providence, yet God declares it to be. The pain it brings can be overwhelming, but we are reminded that even our hardest experiences remain within God's steadfast, loving, and sovereign care.

Throughout GCT’s history many difficult providences have crashed into us and yet God has shown Himself faithful. Specifically with our housing situation as a church, over the last three years, GCT has journeyed through several difficult providences with rent doubling to $11,000 per month, finding land to build, county zoning, permitting, site prep and then building during soaring inflation. Property and material prices climbed relentlessly, with cumulative inflation around 11% since we started this journey, and tariffs spiking some expenses 20-50%. As a result, our total construction costs have gone up, and we now need to pay approximately $600,000 by March 2027.

These are tough providences, no doubt! But does this make God unfaithful? Absolutely not. God is still faithful, and look where He has brought us. He designed even these challenges to draw us together. As we look over at the building that we will soon call home, He calls us to declare with one voice: Lord, you are faithful, and it is only by Your hand. You have been faithful through every step, and You will continue to be faithful.

God says, “Look to Me as a faithful, loving, caring God. Remember how I have worked in your past, and I will give you peace in the present and hope for your future.” He is faithful, unchanging in His nature, unable to break His Word. Nothing in heaven or on earth can stop Him from accomplishing what He has promised us in Christ.

Scripture relentlessly calls us to remember God’s faithfulness. Jeremiah stands among ruins and cries, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope… great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:19-24). David, hunted and surrounded by evil, looks up and declares, “Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds” (Psalm 36:5). Asaph, in deep anguish, chooses: “I will remember… I will ponder… I will meditate on all Your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:11-12). God Himself proclaims His name to Moses as “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6).

Again and again God raises “stones of remembrance”—at the Jordan with Joshua, at Ebenezer with Samuel, in David’s song as the ark comes to Jerusalem—so His people will never forget: “Till now the Lord has helped us” (Joshua 4:6-7, 1 Samuel 7:12). This we must call to mind, God is faithful (Psalm 105:5).

So here is my plea: Do not let our present difficult providence rewrite God’s character. Let us raise our own Ebenezer. Let us name how God has carried us in His faithfulness “till now” (1 Samuel 7:12) and what He is calling us to do in this difficult providence. At this time of difficulty, we are being invited by God Himself to be held firmly by His unbreakable nature of faithfulness, which always has the final word.

See you Sunday, remembering God’s faithfulness: Steve