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Dear friends,

Near the end of his life, King David, through a prayer, declared God’s faithfulness in his life and in the life of Israel. This prayer is recorded in 1 Chronicles 29:10-14.

How do we declare God’s faithfulness?

First, we declare that our God is a personal God who is part of our day to day affairs.

1 Chronicles 29:10 says, “Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.” This verse shows that David acknowledges that God is the God of Israel, the God of the people of Israel, and this God is without end beginning and without end.

What does it mean for us? It means that we too must declare that the God in the Bible is our own personal God, the God of our family, the God of our church, the God of our city, the God of our country.

David is teaching us that God is not a distant God that we cannot reach. Our God is Immanuel –God is with us. God is interested in what is happening in our lives, in our schools, in our workplaces, in everything that we do. That is our God. We must declare it!

Second, we declare that our God is a powerful God who created us, everything around us, and beyond us.

1 Chronicles 29:11a, 12b “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.” “In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.”

Some people do not believe that there is a Creator. But if we just look around us we can clearly see that everything around us has an intended purpose. In other words, if we can see a design, then there must be a designer. We must declare that there is God!

Third, we declare that our God is our head and our ruler.

1 Chronicles 29:11b, 12a says, “Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things.”

The moment that we have accepted Jesus Christ in our lives, we must remember that we made a promise to make Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives. When we declare that Jesus is our Lord, it means that He is the ruler of our lives. We must follow His commands. The Kingdom of God means that there is a King, a ruler. And if we want to be part of the Kingdom of God, then we must make a commitment that Jesus is our King.

Fourth, we declare God’s faithfulness by giving ourselves and our resources.

1 Chronicles 29:14 says, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”

Do you know how much King David gave? In 1 Chronicles 29:4 he gave three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings. One talent of gold is about 33 kilograms. On today’s value or as of June 2018, the international price of gold was about US$41,155.69 per kilogram. At this price, a talent (33 kg) would be worth about $1.4M.  This means that 3,000 talents is = $1.4M/talent x 3,000 talents = $4.2B or P2.3T. This is just the gold that David gave excluding the silver. And because of his example, the people also gave 15,000 talents of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 8,000 talents of bronze and 100,000 talents of iron. In other words, they gave a very large contribution to the ministry of the temple.

Let us remember that when we also give to the church, our contribution will be used to do mission. Your life and your resources will have an impact in the life of others.

As one community of faith, let us continue to declare that God is faithful yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Sincerely,