The Bible overflows with a number of beautiful promises of God. These promises act as an anchor of hope in our times of test. I feel one of the most frequently quoted and confessed promise is: Your mercy is new every morning, your compassion never fails.
Am sure, this scripture has been marked or underlined in your Bible, referred and re-referred to time-n-again.
To me it’s really amusing and comforting that this beautiful scripture—that has kept many from falling and has brought comfort to many a aching heart— is not found in the psalms of David, nor in the proverbs of Solomon. This verse is found in the book of Lamentations!
Hope in the midst of tragedy
Lamentations, meaning ‘tragedy’ was arguably penned by Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. This book was written soon after the fall of Jerusalem in 586BC. God’s city was besieged by the Babylonians, all her glory was reduced to ashes and the people were taken into exile. It was a time of terrible devastation–the loss was total and the bloodshed was rampant. The worst that could happen to a person and nation happened here.
Just pick up ANY verse on a random from the book and you can see it’s laden with grief. See for instance:
Lam 1:16
This is why I weep
and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
no one to restore my spirit.
Lam 2:11
My eyes fail from weeping,
I am in torment within;
My heart is poured out on the ground
because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.
Lam 3:14
I became the laughingstock of all my people;
they mock me in song all day long.
YET in the midst of all this..
… as if a glittering ray of hope has emerged in the darkness, Jeremiah writes in chapter 3, verse 21-23:
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
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.
With God there is always a ‘YET’
My friend, if you are going through a time of devastation in your personal life, you are not reading this by chance.
God wants to remind you that: No matter how bad or dead your situation seems to be, with Him, there is always a scope of “YET” in your valleys! Simply recall the goodness of God in your life and dare to hope. If God has done it before, He can do it again!
Let me end with three more promises for you to meditate upon:
• A righteous man may fall seven times, YET he will rise again. (Proverbs 24:16)
• Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? yes, they may forget, YET will I not forget you. (Isaiah 49:15)
• Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, YET my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed (Isaiah 54:10)
Remember He still has YET in his dictionary!