A
Strong Anchor I
Lamentations
3:22-23, 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.
Theme: God’s loving mercies
never run out, and He offers us a fresh start and renewed strength daily.
Relevance: A ‘leaving of the
old situations behind’ is reason to hope again, even in the middle of our
seriously painful experiences God’s compassions reach out to us still (Lam. 3:21–23).
We all have been tempted to ‘bottle up’ our experiences… ‘bottle up’ our emotions…suppress
or hide our true feelings instead of expressing or processing them with God’s
eternal truth.
Introduction:
Jeremiah, while mourning
the incredible devastation of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army, describes his
pain and misery. This season is marked by intense physical and emotional aching
in his soul. However, right in the middle of total despair, Jeremiah
pauses to remember God’s character is good! This never-changing dynamic
provides an anchor of hope the prophet desperately needs.
Child of God, God’s
steadfast love and mercy have no end, thus providing us fresh hope and a clean
slate every single morning even during occasions when we are getting what we
really deserve! Even while facing the devastation of divine chastening, and in
times of deep misery, God provides us with undiminishing hope. This ‘anchor’
certainly does not remove the outcomes of our broken choices or those of our
love ones, but we do have divine help to deal with the internal turmoil before
us and the heavy accompanying emotions.
Lessons:
Accept These Concepts with
All Your Heart!
God gives us several ideas
to take in thoughtfully….
1.
God’s Compassion Prevents Complete Annihilation! "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed..."
o We know people fail and
deserve punishment. God’s grace stops total destruction; He could have been
even more severe, but He chose not to. People survive only because God holds
back His judgment.
- God’s love prevents complete destruction. The
phrase "we are not consumed"
shows that despite our faults or heavy trials, God’s enduring love
shields and preserves us.
2.
God’s Tender Care Remains for Ever! "...because
his compassions fail not."
- With a prayer to God to remember his bitter plight, yet with lingering depression
over his misery (vv. 19, 20), the prophet gets his eyes off himself and
onto the Lord. Hope is revived when he remembers that the Lord’s mercies and compassions … are new every morning,
and that His faithfulness is great (vv. 21–24).[1]
- God’s tender care does not quit or run dry.
His pity and love stay strong, unchanged, and undiminished forever.
- Mercies are renewed daily. God’s compassion does not run out or grow tired; His grace is freshly waiting for you when you wake up each day.
- However, one thought (this I call to mind) crowded out the hopelessness that
threatened to overwhelm him: Because
of the Lord‘s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never
fail. Judah was down, but not out. God was punishing Judah for her
sin, but did not reject her as His covenant people. [2]
- God gives fresh grace for each new day
regardless. Yesterday’s mistakes or heavy burdens do not use up today’s
supply of mercy. He comforts us with the guarantee of a new start!
- We have Hope within sorrows. This passage proves that hope can survive the darkest tragedies because God’s character never changes—He is constantly good.
- “Faithfulness”
points to God’s firmness, steadiness, steadfastness, and fidelity!
- Was Judah’s deliverance from such a fate due
to something in them? No, it was all due to the faithfulness of God. He
had promised Abraham that He would make a nation come from him—and this
was the nation. He had promised Moses that He would put them into the
land. He had promised Joshua that He would establish them there. He promised
David that there would come One in his line to reign on the throne
forever. The prophets all said that God would not utterly destroy this
people but that He would judge them for their sin. God is faithful. He
has judged them, but He will not utterly destroy them. A faithful remnant
has always remained, and ultimately they will become a great nation
again.[3]
- God always keeps His promises. People can
trust Him completely because His character never changes.
- Truly faithfulness lays in God. Our security
relies on God’s great faithfulness to His character and promises rather
than our own strength or weakness.
We desperately need to
embrace this view of God and never dismiss it ever again. God is faithfully
compassionate and merciful! Life is hard, circumstances can be unforgiving, but
He is our stability in any storm of life. The fault is never with God, but it
is always enmeshed in our sinfulness and the hardness of the conditions we have
aloud. Take this revelation of God to heart and allow it to be the way you
evaluate life and not how you scrutinize God!
[1]
William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible
Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1032.
[2]
Charles H. Dyer, “Lamentations,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures,
ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985),
1217.
[3]
J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible
Commentary, electronic ed., vol. 3 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
1997), 431.
We desperately need to embrace this view of God and never dismiss it ever again. God is faithfully compassionate and merciful! Life is hard, circumstances can be unforgiving, but He is our stability in any storm of life.
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