Promises

Isn't it amazing how sometimes God gives us just the right messages of hope and of his promises of better days ahead just when we need them most?  I have experienced so much of this act of love recently, and I just can't not share it.  It isn't that I want to "shove my religion down other people's throats" as is so often the accusation Christians receive by the world today.  It's like this delightful little tidbit I pinned recently:

God has seen me through some of the hardest moments of my life so why would I not want to share?  In this world where we are constantly bombarded with the very worst kind of news, I just want to share a little bit of God's love and hope so that maybe it will comfort someone in their time of need.  Today, my little bit of hope came from a source I am really enjoying lately...my little devotional app on my phone!  While my little powerhouse of a cell phone is constantly at work connecting me to so many people, places, and things, sometimes I really want to unplug it so that I don't see all the death and destruction in the world.  I don't want to read another sad blog post about death or loss or another sad facebook post about grief and pain and loss because they do cause me sadness, but they are there along with a bunch of joyful posts that I really do want to read.  If life was all rainbows and butterflies, I guess I wouldn't need these little messages of hope so much.  But life sucks sometimes, and when the going gets tough (cue one of my favorite 80's songs here...if that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.  It even has Michael Douglas and the other characters from the movie, Jewel of the Nile, in the background!), I don't want to crawl in a hole and just ignore it all.  I want to keep living for the brighter days that I know are ahead no matter how bad things seem in the present.  So here is a little message of hope of God's promises to us today:

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him." 
Lamentations 3:22-24

The commentary along with this verse says:

"The Lord's compassions do not fail, and his mercies begin anew each morning.  Perhaps yesterday was a bad day for you - nothing came together quite the way you hoped it would.  Maybe things are so difficult right now, that you have given up trying to live in the light of Christ.  Today is a new day!  You have been purchased, and the price was the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The battle against your sins is one that the Lord has already won.  Any battle or obstacle you face today is a battle that belongs to the Lord - nothing can stand against Him!  Let Jesus be your portion!"

It is a wondrous promise that we have today that the Lord's compassion for us does not fail.  However, when Lamentations was written in Old Testament times, Jesus had not arrived yet to fulfill God's promises to the people.  The people of Israel were at their lowest point in history as their beloved city of Jerusalem had recently been captured and destroyed by Babylon and its people were either killed or living in exile.  Lamentations was a collection of poems written by a people who were grieving and sad over the current state of their nation.  There didn't seem to be any way out of their predicament.  The first and second chapters of Lamentations are actually very bleak describing desolation and misery and suffering, but the third chapter emerges as hope for the people based on the promises God made to them.  Isn't that just exactly like human nature?  We lament, cry, and grieve for a time, but if we are to survive, we must find hope for the future.  For me and the people of Israel, I find that hope in the promises of God.  For the people of Israel, those promises did come true in the rebirth and rebuilding of their nation into one even greater than it had been before.  In this fallen and desolate world, earthly kingdoms will fall and bloody wars will be waged.  If the people of Israel had just given in to their grief and desolation and lost all hope to live, they would not have seen the rebirth of their beloved nation.  God never promised that we would not experience pain and grief and sadness in this desolate world, but he did promise his blessings even after our toughest storms.  He promised the birth of a new day and a hope for the future.  And now, we have Jesus, the greatest blessing of all, the truest friend who gave the ultimate sacrifice of love for us all!  I just had to share this wonderful news because seriously, how could I not?

Hope you all have a blessed day!