Appreciate God’s faithful love!
“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Why are you where you are today? What has allowed you to get through difficult situations you’ve faced in the past?
Would you attribute your current circumstance to your hard work and perseverance?
Would you say you have been lucky and that is why you are where you are today? If so, I’ll spare you having me get on my bully pulpit and give you my speech about how luck is not the answer?
Reread our verses for this week and see if there are words or phrases you can pick out which tell you why you are where you are today.
“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed” The writer of Lamentations begins these verses with a sobering reminder – God has every right to and should wipe us off the face of the earth because of our sin. The first words of our verses remind us why we are still here and haven’t been erased from the face of the earth “Because of the LORD’s great love”. We know it is only because God’s love that we are here and have everything that we have. One of most loved and familiar Bible verses reminds us that is because of God’s love that we are still here. John 3:16 tells us “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”. That familiar and simple Bible verse reminds us that not only are we not going to be wiped out because of our sin, Jesus paid for each of those sins and one day we will live with him forever in the perfection of heaven.
“His compassions never fail” Think honestly about how many times you have failed and because of those failures you should have been ruined long ago. I’m not trying to drag you down and make you feel miserable. I want you to realize how awesome and sustaining God’s compassion is. Pause and reflect on this phrase “His compassions never fail”. If you really think about that, you will be overwhelmed as you realize all the times God has rescued you, bailed you out, covered your mistakes and made you look far better than you deserved. You get the idea. Every time you’ve needed him and even times when you didn’t, Jesus was there for you and showed you and showered you with his underserved compassion.
“They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” If it’s not enough that God’s love and compassion forgives us and bails us out, he gives us his blessings brand new each and every day.
The writer of Lamentations closes our verses for this week with a clear reminder of why we are where we are and why we have not been eradicated like we deserve “great is your faithfulness”. Again, this is not mean to demean us and drag all of our failures of the past in front of our face. It is to reassure and remind us that we are where we are and have what we have only because of Jesus and his faithful sustaining love.
Stop and take a look around at who you are and what you have and are privileged to do and enjoy and you will see a clear demonstration of God’s faithful love!