Saturday, July 6, 2024

Story behind the Song "Great is Thy Faithfulness"

"Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born July 29, 1866, in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky. With only an elementary education, he became a schoolteacher at the age of 16 in the same country schoolhouse he had attended.

At the age of 27, he found Christ during revival meetings held by evangelist Henry Clay Morrison and began writing sacred poems, many of which became popular hymns still sung today.

Thomas’ health was unstable and he lived his life in bouts of illness.
He worked five years as the editor of the local paper in Franklin, as the business manager and office editor of the Pentecostal Herald in Louisville, Kentucky, and as a life insurance agent in Winona Lake and later in Vineland, New Jersey.
Thomas was ordained as a Methodist minister, and in 1903, entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, but a year later was forced to resign due to poor health.

While serving the Lord in Vineland, New Jersey, Thomas sent several poems to his friend, musician William Runyan. William was so moved by this one poem that he prayed that the Lord would give him special guidance in the composition of the music. The hymn was published in 1923.

Through all the ups and downs of his life, he discovered that God was faithful, with new blessings every morning. Lamentations 3:22, 23
 became very precious to him:

His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Steps To Life
Click on Link below to listen to "Great is Thy Faithfulness"