His Mercies Are New Every Morning
I have made a second design with the verses from Lamentations 3:22-24. The first one is HERE and it includes just the part about His steadfast love. I am drawn to this entire chapter, but this particular string of verses hits deep. A long, long time ago in my teen years (I shake my head when I realize just how MANY years ago), we used to sing these verses as a song during youth group devotionals, around campfires at church camp, and eventually we heard it sung in congregational singing as well. I regularly felt moved by the words, but because we sang it so often, I know sometimes the depth of the meaning behind the words was lost.
About fifteen years ago or so, I remember singing it on a Sunday morning and really HEARING the words. We were going through a particularly difficult time in life, as my mother-in-law had recently passed away after a second battle with breast cancer, and my sister who was not quite 40 was deep in the middle of her second battle with breast cancer. Their cancer journeys were incredibly similar. When the cancer came back the second time for both of them, they both had tumors on their spines, metastasized cancer in their lungs and bones, a lot of pain and agony, and well… little hope for healing this side of Heaven.
We were grieving the loss of one and the probable loss of another, and my mind was at war with the reality of our situation, and the words of the song. I listened to this song being sung about our God whose mercies are new every morning, a God whose love never ends, who is the definition of faithfulness, and the one in whom we can place our hope. My rational mind wanted to scream about how life didn’t feel very merciful and how it felt ridiculous to hope.
I’ve reflected on this verse and the song before – it is obviously a core verse for me. I’ve wrestled so many times in my life with situations that felt hopeless, places where I felt abandoned and alone, health diagnoses that rocked our world, agonized and wept through betrayal and loss of relationships to sin and selfishness.
But God. God is my portion. God is my hope. God’s mercies are new EVERY morning.
And so, this side of heaven, we will continue to wrestle. We’ll continue to praise. We’ll continue to work through the hard and the seemingly impossible, and we’ll rely on His faithfulness.
I envisioned a beautiful beach with a sunrise when thinking about a design for this set of verses. I hope it’s an encouragement to you, like it is to me.
