Outrageous Faithfulness: God Is Faithful Even When We Can’t See It

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

Last week, we began a new sermon series called Outrageous. We talked about God’s mercy and how, even when humanity failed, God continued to show compassion, forgiveness, and kindness to those who had turned their backs on Him.

It was outrageous mercy.

This week, we continue the series by looking at something else that exceeds what we would normally expect from God:

His outrageous faithfulness.

When We Can’t See the Whole Picture

If we take a moment to look back over our lives and put all the pieces together, we can see something that is sometimes difficult to recognize in the moment:

God has been there all along.

It’s easy to judge the difficult days more harshly when we’re only looking at one piece of the puzzle.

Human nature often causes us to focus on whatever is immediately in front of us. When one piece doesn’t make sense, we can begin to wonder whether God has abandoned us.

But we forget that we’re looking at a single piece when God sees the entire picture.

Asaph experienced this in Psalm 73.

At the beginning of the chapter, he looked at the prosperity of the wicked and struggled to understand how God could allow certain things to happen. He was judging God’s promises based on individual pieces of a puzzle that didn’t make sense by themselves.

But later, Asaph entered the presence of God in His sanctuary, and his perspective changed.

He began to see the bigger picture.

Sometimes the thing we need most isn’t a change in our circumstances.

It’s a change in our perspective.

God Is Still Faithful

Asaph briefly thought that material blessings were evidence of God’s faithfulness. But when he came into God’s presence, his perspective changed.

Temporary things will never be able to define God’s unwavering faithfulness.

Even if everything in this life were stripped away from us, He is still faithful.

Job understood this.

After losing so much, Job declared:

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…”

Job remained faithful because he understood that there was a bigger picture.

When you find yourself in the middle of difficulty, you have to look up instead of down. You have to look beyond the individual piece you’re holding and trust that God sees the entire puzzle.

God is always at work, even when it feels like He is not working.

Why?

Because His faithfulness is outrageous.

Faithful Through Every Circumstance

Paul told Timothy something powerful in 2 Timothy 2:13:

“Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, he remains faithful to us and will help us…”

Paul wasn’t saying this from a life without problems.

He was speaking from experience.

Paul had been shipwrecked—not once, but three times.

Beaten?

He was faithful.

Stoned?

He was faithful.

In prison?

He was faithful.

Forsaken?

He was faithful.

Hungry and thirsty?

He was faithful.

Paul’s confidence didn’t come from having an easy life. His confidence came from knowing the character of God.

He had seen enough of the puzzle to know that God could be trusted.

Keep Looking at the Picture

Think about putting together a puzzle.

When you first open the box, you’re looking at hundreds or even thousands of pieces that don’t seem to fit together.

Some pieces look completely unrelated.

Some seem impossible to place.

It can become overwhelming if all you look at are the individual pieces.

But there’s something on the front of the box that changes everything:

The picture.

The picture gives you hope because it shows you what all the pieces are supposed to become.

The same is true in our lives.

When life feels like a thousand pieces that don’t seem to fit, get into God’s Word.

His Word reminds us of the bigger picture of His faithfulness.

Paul described it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:8–9:

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”

And Romans 8:28 reminds us:

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

That is outrageous faithfulness.

Faithfulness in the Middle of Devastation

The prophet Jeremiah gives us another powerful picture of God’s faithfulness.

Jeremiah mourned the destruction of Jerusalem. His writings in Jeremiah and Lamentations describe tremendous devastation, suffering, sorrow, and loss.

Before we get to his declaration of hope, we have to understand what Jeremiah was experiencing.

In Lamentations 3, he describes being led into darkness, feeling as though God had turned His hand against him, being mocked by his own people, experiencing bitterness and sorrow, and feeling as though everything he had hoped for from the Lord was lost.

Yet right in the middle of all that devastation comes one of the greatest declarations of God’s faithfulness.

Jeremiah says:

“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin each morning afresh.”

Then he says:

“The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

And finally:

“So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.”

Notice where this hope appears.

It doesn’t come after everything gets better.

It doesn’t come after the situation is resolved.

It comes in the middle of the devastation.

Jeremiah chose to remember who God was.

His Faithfulness Doesn’t Depend on Ours

There will be moments when people disappoint us.

There will be moments when our circumstances don’t make sense.

There will be moments when we wonder why God hasn’t answered the way we expected.

But our uncertainty doesn’t change God’s character.

Our failures don’t change His faithfulness.

Our circumstances don’t determine whether God is faithful.

That’s what makes His faithfulness outrageous.

He remains faithful when we are weak.

He remains faithful when we don’t understand.

He remains faithful when we can’t see the whole picture.

He remains faithful when all we can see are pieces that don’t seem to fit.

Remember the Whole Picture

Maybe you’re in a difficult season right now.

Maybe you’re holding a piece of the puzzle that doesn’t make sense.

Maybe you’re looking at your circumstances and wondering where God is.

Don’t judge God’s faithfulness by one piece of the puzzle.

Look at the whole picture.

Look at His Word.

Look at His promises.

Look at His character.

Look at what He has already done.

And remember:

God is still faithful.

Even when you can’t see what He’s doing, He is working.

Even when the pieces don’t make sense, He sees the finished picture.

Even when everything feels lost, His mercy is still new every morning.

Great is His faithfulness.