New and Certain

For three years, apart from household necessities, Susan didn’t buy anything for herself. The Covid-19 pandemic affected my friend’s income, and she embraced a simple lifestyle. “One day, while cleaning my apartment, I noticed how shabby and faded my things looked,” she shared. “That’s when I started to miss having new things—the sense of freshness and excitement. My surroundings seemed tired and stale. I felt as if there was nothing to look forward to.”

Susan found encouragement in an unlikely book in the Bible. Written by Jeremiah after Jerusalem fell to Babylon, Lamentations describes the open wound of grief suffered by the prophet and the people. In the midst of grief’s despair, however, lies sure ground for hope─God’s love. "His compassions never fail,” Jeremiah wrote. “They are new every morning” (3:22-23).

Susan was reminded that God’s deep love relentlessly breaks through anew each day. When circumstances make us feel there’s no longer anything to look forward to, we can call to mind His faithfulness and look forward to how He’ll provide for us. We can confidently hope in God, knowing our hoping is never in vain (vv. 24-25) because it’s secured in His steadfast love and compassion.

“God’s love is my ‘something new’ each day,” Susan says. “I can look ahead with hope.”

When have you felt unable to see any hope in your situation? How does the promise of God’s love as “new every morning” give you hope?

Lamentations is one of the darkest books in the Bible; it’s Jeremiah’s heart cry for his violated nation. But here, at the center point of his poem, we find real hope. “The Lord’s . . . compassions never fail” (3:22). The book also concludes in hope, yet we still sense Jeremiah’s doubt. He proclaims, “You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation” (5:19). That’s how we might expect the book to end—in ultimate triumph. The prophet, however, asks God a pair of haunting questions: “Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?” (v. 20). Although he asks God to “restore us to yourself” (v. 21), he doesn’t do so with unwavering confidence. Rather, he adds this caveat: “unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure” (v. 22). Jeremiah is a prophet who struggled mightily with the tragedy he saw.