The new year’s air is teeming with
freshness – having to start all over again like a clean slate and bursting with
promises for brighter days ahead. No
wonder the prevalent feelings are happiness and hope. Yet, in the midst of the sea of happy faces
or even behind those smiles, deep down inside, some are in despair because yes,
the calendar may have changed…but it’s only the calendar, their situation still
didn’t change a bit. There are still no
signs of a much-needed job, homes remain broken, huge debts are still looming
over our heads, precious relationships are still strained, or sickness still
plagues the body. Regardless of how we
feel or what our situation is, there is a message of hope found in Lamentation 3: 21-24 that we can
carry in our hearts throughout the year.
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“ Therefore I hope in Him!”
Therefore I have hope.
22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“ Therefore I hope in Him!”
The first two chapters of Lamentations till
verse 20 of chapter
3 poured out the grief and deep anguish of the people of
Judah reflecting their sense of hopelessness.
But suddenly a ray of hope broke through the dark clouds of despair,
something changed starting from verse 21.
Tucked in this passage is the key to finding hope in the midst of
difficult times.
Finding hope begins with:
The
Decision to Recall God’s Mercies and Faithfulness (Lam. 3:21)
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore
I have hope.
In order to unlock the key to finding hope, we need to decide to shift
our eyes and mindset from our circumstances and focus on the Lord. We can do this by recalling, reviewing or
remembering God’s mercies and faithfulness towards us.
Recall the times and incidents how God came through miraculously and
amazingly for you- rescuing and helping you in your deepest need. Try to trace His Hand in Your life and you’ll
see that through all those times, God’s love, grace and mercy has sustained
you. Dig through your memory and choose
to remember and meditate on God’s faithfulness.
We can always choose what to think about or what to meditate on.
Remember that the mind is a very powerful facility. According to an article in Scientific
American Magazine, “What is the Memory
Capacity of the Brain” by Professor Paul Reber of Borthwestern University:
The
human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about
1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion
connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out
of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage
space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons
combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially
increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around
2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked
like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to
hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running
continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.
So
if we would take advantage of such capacity and fill our minds with the things
of God, choosing to dwell and meditate on His character and His Word instead of
filling our thoughts with lies and rubbish and contemplating on the
hopelessness of the situation, we would certainly find hope. All we need to do is to decide to recall or
call to mind God’s faithfulness, love and mercies toward us.
Then
when we have made that decision to recall God’s faithfulness, don’t forget about
it right away and toss it out of the window.
Instead hold on to it and continue to meditate more and more on God’s
mercies and faithfulness- and you’ll see:
The Depth of God’s Mercies (Lam 3:22-23)
22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not
consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your
faithfulness.
Mercy
as used in this text is not just how we commonly understand mercy as simply having
pity on someone. Notice that mercy here
is in its plural form “mercies”,
meaning God’s supply of His mercies toward us is an abundant supply. It is overflowing, and it never runs out. In
addition, there are 3 ways how the mercies
of God was further described and its depth explored:
1.
God’s
mercies or his steadfast love preserves and sustains.
§ Although Jerusalem was razed to the ground,
there was a lot of bloodshed and the people of Judah were taken in exile to
Babylon, Jeremiah saw that because of the Lord’s mercies, they are not
completely consumed, destroyed or wasted. There was still a remnant. Bad as things are, it is owing to
the mercy of God that they are not worse. When we are in difficult situations,
realize that things are bad but they might have been worse, and therefore there
is hope that they may be better. . As Paul had given encouragement in 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9 “ We are hard-pressed
on every side, yet are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair,
persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed.
2.
God’s
mercies and compassions or his steadfast love never fails or will always
remain.
§ The word “steadfast” means that no matter what
would happen, it would always remain.
This is the kind of mercies and compassions that God has for us. Even if all else fails, His compassions will
never fail. His steadfast or covenant
love knows no end.
3.
God’s
mercies and compassions or his steadfast love are new every morning.
§ Morning always signal the start of the day. What a great comfort to know that at the
beginning of each day, God’s mercies are already there. To top it off, these mercies are always fresh
and new! We don’t have to use
yesterday’s supply for today’s needs. We
don’t have to budget His mercies for us because it will not run out, they are
always in abundance and the supply is always new each day ! Do
you see God’s goodness? We don’t even
have to wait for another week, month or year in order to get a fresh supply of
God’s mercies. It’s every morning! Great is the faithfulness of God indeed!
When we choose to focus our minds and hearts on the Lord- His
faithfulness and mercies, and hold fast to it, hope springs forth. I believe it’s not so much of our decision to
remember – it’s the object or the focus of our hope that gives us hope. It is because we know whom we are trusting
and where our hope lies- it is because our hope is in God. We can always hope and hope and hope and hope,
yet if that hope is founded on shaky objects, we would only end up frustrated
and disappointed. How many times have we placed our hope and trust in the
promises of men, but in the end they fail to deliver, thus crushing our hopes. But
the good news is that our hope is in God who will never fail. He is who He says He is. If He said that He
is our provider, healer, deliver, rescuer, comforter- He is all these things
and so much. He is not like man who
lies, He is trustworthy, He never wavers and His character never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. Thus, we can put our faith in Him and then we
can boldly have:
The
Declaration of Hope (Lam 3:21 & 24)
21 “ …Therefore I have hope… 24
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“ Therefore I hope in Him!”
We can only know and boldly declare real hope
if we know that where we have placed our hope will never ever fail. And only God will never fail. We can see that
sandwiched between the two declarations of hope in verse 21 and verse 24 is the
Prophet Jeremiah’s understanding of the character of God – His steadfast love
that knows no end, His compassions that never fail, His mercies that are always
overflowing and new every morning. Only
when he has remembered who God is then hope begins to break forth.
The importance of having hope can never be over emphasized. Hope is like a life-jacket. It keeps one afloat when he is in an ocean of
difficulties.
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