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Hope is a renewable resource.
Jeff WeinkaufI’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember,
and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:19-24
You've heard someone in the grips of fear or frustration utter the phrase "I've lost all hope!", and yet often down the road that same person will find it again right? What's changed? Usually it's new information, or a change in perspective which can restore it.
The writer of Lamentations is no different. He starts out chapter 3 with a whole list of trouble and hardships, but long about mid way through he stops and reminds himself of the character of God, who He is. "But there's one thing I remember..." he says, then he goes on to make one of the most powerful and quoted statements in scripture.
God's love couldn't have run out, His love couldn't have dried up, His mercies are new every morning, GREAT is your faithfulness! (paraphrase)
New every morning. Isn't it interesting that after a good night of sleep things can look different? It's like God programmed a reset button into our world. Go to sleep, wake up, new day, new mercies from God. Plenty of light to make a day a full day, plenty of love from God. New every morning. Reset.
So the lesson for me today is that no matter the trial, or (well deserved discipline) God's love and mercies are NEW every morning. Hope is found (and renewed) in the faithfulness of our unchanging, merciful God. Great is His faithfulness.
God thank you! Thank you for the renewable resource that is Hope in you. Thank you that you provided us with a built in "perspective shift" that can be new every morning. Amen
