Hope and Fresh Mercy

We cannot live long without hope. Hope is the confident expectation that God is for me in Christ and will cause all things to work together for good. To maintain hope we must always be reminding ourselves of truth. We must "call to mind" what God says and not what I am feeling/thinking. This was the case for Jeremiah as he writes Lamentations. He was experiencing the overflow of Judah's wickedness and reached the low point where he mourns,

"My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord" (Lamentations 3:18).

But God graciously gave Jeremiah the ability to raise his bowed heart, looking up to God through the rubble of his hope to find fresh hope in God,

"But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lam.3:21-23).

This is where I find hope over and over and over again, whether my own sin has sent me tumbling again into the dust or the sin of someone else against me: God is a God of inexhaustible covenant mercy. He keeps His covenant purchased for me through the blood of Christ. His mercy is new or "fresh" every morning. Morning can mark a new start in hope. May it be for me and you today as we "call to mind" the fresh mercies of the Lord.