Lamentation 3: 22, 23 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
Dear God,
Again I have received hope and lessons for my Christian living from Your word. Today from the writings of Jeremiah, I have read material to apply to myself and Christian practice. His experiences read like a horror story, because it was lived through out a time of war for the Judean people, and all the time he was ridiculed, persecuted, with attacks upon his life, because he was Your faithful prophet delivering messages to the kings and people of Jerusalem. It must have been so hard for Jeremiah to faithfully deliver Your messages, because often his life was not safe and the intended recipients did not want to hear, let alone change their beliefs and practices that You warned them they must or face punishment, banishment or death.
Jeremiah wrote as if he himself often felt personally disciplined and forgotten by You. Then he would overcome his despondency and remember Your continuous love and boundless compassion that came ‘new every morning’; as surely as the sky was always there. Telling himself, “’The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him.’”
Today in the light of a new day, I also know You are ‘my portion’ and I will put my hope in You, in confidence, that my hope along with that of Jeremiah is not a vain hope, but one that is based on personal knowledge and experience. Along with Jeremiah I give thanks to You my God, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” I will endeavour to always remember, that the best way to wait for You is given as being “It is good that one should hope in the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3: 25, 26. It is inspiring for me to reflect upon these portions of scripture and the life of Jeremiah, for they reveal that even in the midst of extremely adverse events, not of his own making or due, he was willing to count himself amongst the sinners who needed chastisement from God. Lamentations 3: 28 “Let him sit alone and keep silent because the Lord has laid it upon him.”
Today as advised in these texts, I a sinner will bow in submission before You, all the time knowing therein is my solution and hope.
Amen