The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;his mercies never come to an end;they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
On the surface, those words are a great treasure; a powerful source of hope for all who have given their lives to Jesus…BUT, here’s a thought to ponder: The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (according to Hebrews 4:12); this should enlighten us to the fact that the Bible is perhaps not a book to just be read on the surface. Let’s look for a moment at how reading the Bible deeper than just on the surface might work to deepen the meaning of these verses from Lamentations.
First of all, we must realize that the Bible is like no other book ever written. The Bible (and I mean the ENTIRE Bible) is the inspired Word of God. The Book is massive, was penned in parts (or books) by numerous authors across a span of centuries. Despite these facts, the entire compilation carries one theme and coherently flows together into the Living Word of God mentioned above. It’s an unfathomable accomplishment that our human minds have a really hard time wrapping around. On our own, in our limited and flawed human understanding; there is zero chance we would ever be able to see and understand all the parallels and draw any of the proper conclusions.
God knew this and that’s why when we come to saving faith in Jesus, He sends the Holy Spirit to live inside our hearts. Jesus tells us in John 14:26 “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” That is how thorough God is in His infinitely wise planning of our lives. Given all that as a foundation I’m now going to cite some scriptures that will help us to “read between the lines” these verses of promise from Lamentations:
In John 16:33 Jesus says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
1 Peter 5:8 says, Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Jesus warns us in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
And in Matthew 6:34 Jesus warns us, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
In John 14:27 (the greatest promise in the Bible) Jesus tells us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (This is the very same peace that allowed Jesus to sleep through the storm that had His apostles so distraught in Mark 4:35-41…and it’s ours for the taking!!!)
My personal interpretation of those verses in summary is as follows: Life is going to be hard, REALLY HARD, because the devil is going to stop at nothing to make it so for us. We are going to be under constant attack from him, every day of our lives; especially when we are trying to follow Jesus into the most blessed life He has lain out for us. On our own and apart from Jesus we CAN DO NOTHING. And worrying about tomorrow serves no purpose; other than to deplete the strength we have been graciously given to make it through today. Our ONLY hope of survival at all is to learn to trust the Word of God and find the hope and peace Jesus promised He would leave for us in John 14:27. The way God’s glorious plan works is that this (our ONLY hope of survival), once we truly learn to believe God and rely on Him is the one and only way we can come to find the peace that Jesus promised to give us. It’s true and it works 100% of the time as long as we can muster the faith to believe.
Now let’s look again at Lamentations 3:22-23:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;his mercies never come to an end;they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness.
Still a great treasure; a powerful source of hope for all who have given their lives to Jesus on the surface, no doubt. But when we read between the lines given the context of the entire Bible, we can understand a far deeper level of the blessing this scripture promises. Why do we need the mercies to be on our doorstep new every morning?…because every new day is gonna have its own share of tribulations lined up waiting for us. Every day, we can do nothing apart from Jesus, and still every day we will face attacks from the enemy. If we had to deal with even a moment of this life in our own strength, we would immediately be crushed under a load of stress and frustration because not only would we be incapable of dealing with today’s trials; we would also be wasting today’s energy store stressing about tomorrow before it got to us. God metes it out to us on a daily basis because even with His help, one day at a time is all we can handle.
This is the reason we MUST learn to study our Bibles, and this is how it works. We need to commit ourselves to the renewing of our minds in God’s words on a daily basis because our survival depends on it if we want to enjoy our lives. We can never know enough of Who God is and how much He loves us. Our lives need to be a quest for this knowledge because there is no coasting with Jesus. If we are not working daily to get closer to Him, the enemy is going to make sure we are drifting further away from Him. That is a fact!!!
Life is going to be hard. Without faith in God, we are totally incapable of making it on our own…much less being able to enjoy a single moment of peace. But God in His infinite wisdom has given us a How-To manual, along with placing the Holy Spirit inside our hearts to help us understand all His promises and how to walk in them. And this is the ONLY way we can simply pick up and live in the blanket of peace that Jesus promised to give each of us.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;his mercies never come to an end;they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness…INDEED!!!
Father, thank You that Your mercies and grace are promised to come to us in daily portions, fresh and new each and every morning. Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear how important it is for us to seek You; and help us to understand we absolutely must make this an everyday effort because our adversary the devil makes his everyday effort to get us off Your intended path. In Jesus name, Amen.