*Text: Lam. 3: 22-23*
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness”
The Almighty God does not change, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. The world around you may change, friends who used to be trusted and reliable can become unreliable and untrustworthy, government who used to be responsible can become irresponsible, spouses who used to be loving and caring may change and become the opposite of what they used to be, but God does not change. That is the reason why scriptures admonished us not to put our hope in friends or human beings generally, neither must we place our hope in any worldly system, because these things are fleeting and may change for the worse, rather we are admonished to place our hope in God because God never change and so He does not disappoint. He does not stop loving you, even when you sin, He hates the sin, but He still loves you. Our text this morning is a word of assurance to us, let it encourage you today.
Our text this morning talks to us about two very important attribute of God that is unchanging, namely His mercies and His faithfulness. It says three things about the mercies of God, first is that the mercies of God are renewed every morning and so it is perfectly sufficient for the challenges, disappointments, sufferings, temptations and struggles that may rise up against us daily. Secondly, it says that the mercies of God does not fail and so it remains ever potent, it never loses its power to lift up us above the problems that may come against us, it remains efficacious to deal with the issue of sin and its attendant complications or problems in our lives and thirdly it is by the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed. Jesus said in matt. 6: 34c, “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” There are enough trouble in the day to overwhelm and consume us, to swallow us up completely but for the mercies of God which provides escape routes for us from these troubles so that we are not consumed. Many of us have found ourselves in situations where we considered the mountains of trouble and the avalanche of troubles that came against us on a particular day and we could not help but wonder how we overcame, if not that the mercies of the Lord saw us through such that we were able to ride the wave of the troubles and come out safely on the other side.
Another attribute of God mentioned in our text this morning is the faithfulness of God. It says that the faithfulness of God is great. This commentary on the faithfulness of God, is the product of deep reflections of the moves and the acts of God both in the life of the writer and his people the Jews. Considering the various interventions of God, many of which were timely, unprecedented and undeserved by the people, he could not but wonder at the greatness of the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God is great because it is incomparable to any other faithfulness we see around from other sources. One of the peculiarities of the faithfulness of God that makes it great is that it does not depend on our own faithfulness to Him. And so even when we are unfaithful to Him, He remains faithful, because to become unfaithful for whatever reason is for Him to deny Himself and God will not deny Himself (2 Tim. 2: 13).
Is this a license for us to go ahead and remain unfaithful to Him knowing that He will remain forever faithful to us? No at all. Rather, if we our conscience is still alive and not dead, this fact should sober us up, and produce in us genuine repentance for our acts of unfaithfulness to Him in the past, with a fresh resolution and commitment to a new lifestyle of faithfulness to Him.
His mercies toward you is new every morning, His faithfulness towards you is great, allow this word of comfort coming to you from His word for today pull you closer to Him and detach you from everything ungodly. Then you rest in His word, regardless of the present trouble or distress around and within you. That will be the right approach to this word of assurance from God to you today. Shalom.
Prayer Point
1. Father, your faithfulness is great, it is incomparable and it is not dependent on our own faithfulness. Even when we are unfaithful you remain faithful.
2. Father, thank you for your acts and your various interventions in my life by reason of your faithfulness
3. Father, thank you for your mercies towards me that is new every morning
4. Father please forgive me for the various acts of unfaithfulness that has been evident in my life
5. Father, by your mercy may I continue to escape from every trouble that will rise up against me, seeking to consume me in Jesus name.
HIS mercies are always sufficient. What a good God!