by Kevin Burton
Don’t you love the first snowfall of the season? Silent and clean, a beautiful white blanket. Frozen for sure, but warming the heart.
And don’t you hate the 17th snowfall? Actually after about three it’s, enough already!
Oh but that first one. How beautiful to wake up to a landscape covered in new-fallen snow! What peace in that early-morning scene, before the world begins clamoring for your attention.
Living under God’s mercies is like getting that first snowfall – every day! They are new every morning.
God’s mercies cover the grayness of life. They paint a fresh scene. And there is no need to check a weather forecast, for God is always there and always will be, even when, especially when, it doesn’t look like it.
Remember friend. Don’t be like those who are falling apart at the seems, s-e-e-m-s, living life based on the way things seem and not on the promises written lovingly into the Bible.
God’s word is the truth. Take Him at His word.
“The Lord’s faithfulness, mercy, and love are available—today, tomorrow, and forever,” declares a recent message from In Touch Ministries. Believe it or not, such an uplifting message comes from a book called Lamentations.
“Lamentations was written in rubble. Jerusalem had been destroyed, the temple lay in ruins, and the people were scattered, bereaved, and bewildered (Psalm 137:1),” In Touch wrote. “Yet somewhere in the middle of that grief, the writer paused to say something astonishing:
“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him’ (Lam. 3:22-24, KJV).
“If ever there were a moment when God’s goodness might have seemed to run out, this was it. But the writer was able to look at the wreckage and see, beneath it all, the unchanging faithfulness of the Lord.”
Your morning may look and feel like something to lament. God’s mercies don’t always remove certain harsh earthly realities we have to deal with. Though you can’t see God’s mercies as you can falling snow, you know they are there.
This is the context into which we need to move each morning, the very good ones, the very bad ones and the ordinary ones.
“In Lamentations 3, the prophet Jeremiah is at one of the lowest points in his lifetime,” reads a passage on the website www.gotquestions.org. “His personal condition parallels that of the nation of Judah. As he witnesses the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem, Jeremiah simultaneously suffers through an extremely painful ordeal. Yet, amid his sorrow and pain, Jeremiah’s hope is renewed as he remembers the faithfulness of the Lord.”
“Despite experiencing outward affliction and deep inner turmoil, Jeremiah can say of the Lord, ‘Great is your faithfulness,’ because he places his hope and trust in God. This moment is a turning point in Lamentations as Jeremiah begins to declare God’s promises: ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.’ ‘The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him,’ Lamentations 3:24-25).
“Great is your faithfulness is Jeremiah’s confession of trust in God. Although cast down for a season, Judah is not utterly cast out. God is disciplining the nation and bringing punishment for her sins but not rejecting her as His covenant people.”
“God’s steadfastness isn’t tied to our circumstances or our performance. It isn’t thinner on hard days,” In Touch wrote. “It is unwavering, patient, and always there, like a spring that never runs dry, renewing itself each morning whether we notice or not”
“That means there is never a day when God’s goodness toward you has worn out. Not when you’re struggling or when you’re grieving. Not even when you feel far from Him. His compassions are new this morning, and they will be new tomorrow.”
“The Father is infinite in His being and, therefore, in every one of His attributes. His love has no restrictions, and His mercy is without end.”
One of the most comforting hymns in the great Christian songbook comes from our passage in Lamentations.
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness was written in 1923 by Thomas O. Chisholm, an American schoolteacher and insurance agent, and set to music the same year by William M. Runyan,” reads an article on Living-bread.org.
“Drawn from Lamentations 3:22-23, it praises God whose mercy never runs out and comes fresh each morning, not out of one dramatic rescue but out of a long, ordinary life of being kept.”
Some of today’s challenges you won’t see coming. Others will be expected and more routine. Aren‘t you grateful for a God who has your back no matter what?
“Whatever today is asking of you, know this: The love that has held you until now will keep on holding you,” In Touch wrote.
