The steadfast love of the Lord never ceaseth; his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning; GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV)."Great is your faithfulness".
Those words, if care is not taken, will appear like words written in response to a great breakthrough, blessings or a massive, joyous victory procession.
No, not at all, they were scripted in intense anguish and torment of soul. Ever experienced personal pain and crisis? The whole world seems to be against you. The heavens feel like brass and your prayers, you are tempted to believe it just bounces off your roof. Life becomes flat. As if that's not enough, you bring yourself to believe God has gone silent on you.That's exactly Jeremiah's emotions towards Jerusalem's destruction: "...when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer (vs 8).
Such pain and anguish! If God shuts out my prayer, who else will I turn to? Yet, in all these, Jeremiah found hope in God. He didn't get depressed and despondent while lamenting over Jerusalem. Rather, he was humbled and found hope in God. Read his words in vs 19-21:"
19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. 21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope". In his adversity and mourning; he paused, probably, to blow his nose, wipe his tears and ponder the faithfulness of God in the midst of it all.
Look up the vs 21 again: " This I recall to mind, therefore have I hope". What did he recall to mind? See vs 22-23. That's what he recalled to mind: God's steadfast love, his unending mercy and his GREAT FAITHFULNESS.
There is hope in adversity when we ponder God's love, His mercies and His faithfulness. Every misfortune of life is an opportunity for God to be glorified in us. Adversity is God's refinery; through which He refines and polishes our lives for His glory: "...he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
God is faithful and "great is His faithfulness". His promises are immutable. Regardless of our circumstances, God has an agenda for our lives that is greater than our minds can imagine. Furthermore, God's faithfulness has nothing to do with our faithfulness. It has nothing to do with how well we try to obey God: "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:13). He cannot deny himself, whatever He has promised, He will accomplish. It's not about us, it's about His integrity; the glory of His name and His word. Hold on to the promises of God, especially His promises in His word, because it is His words He watches over to perform. Every promise of God for our lives should deeply be rooted in His word.
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. (Hebrews 6:13-19).
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