03/26/2024 – You have reason to hope in the midst of affliction
Lamentations 3: 17 You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity. 18 And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.” 19 Remember my affliction and roaming,The wormwood and the gall. 20 My soul still remembers And sinks within me. 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!” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. 26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord.
Jeremiah had to witness the destruction of Jerusalem. Everything he warned the people about came to be. The city and the temple were destroyed. He lamented and wrote down his lamentations in this book. In the long siege, people in Jerusalem starved to death. Some resorted to cannibalism. Some of the harshest realities of life in a sinful world took place before his eyes.
On top of his sorrow was disappointment. When you know that a tragedy was avoidable, it makes it more painful. Yet from the depth of his sorrow, through his tears, when his soul sinks within him, comes this proclamation for the ages: the mercies of God are not consumed. There is never a time when God stops having mercy on us. Instead, as every night is followed by a new sunrise that fills the world with light and warmth, God’s mercies are renewed each day! He remains faithful to His word!
Jeremiah does not deny his sorrow, but he proclaims: God is my portion, and I still hope in Him! Can you affirm your hope in God today?
Hope in anything else, in anyone else will disappoint and bring shame because nothing else, no one else can ever save. The people failed, their religion failed… their leaders failed and brought destruction to all the people; YET there was hope! We have hope today ONLY in Christ!