“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23
The fifth way we humble ourselves before God, says Boston, is to “…thank God for His many mercies to us and not dwell on the negative.” As he said last week if we are truly humble, we will wonder why God has afflicted us so little. The corollary to that is a deeper appreciation for God’s mercies upon us as well as an ever-widening awareness of just how much God blesses us, blessings that we are blind to if we aren’t truly humble.
Lamentations 3:22-23 is a powerful testimony to this principle. Jeremiah has just lived through the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. The horrors he describes in Lamentations are truly awful. In fact the whole book is a chiastic structure recounting the devastation in Israel. The only ray of hope is at the very center of the book, Lamentations 3:22-23, where Jeremiah realizes that even in the midst of the devastation of war, God’s faithfulness and His mercy are truly great.
Of course, this is the inspiration for the wonderful hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness. For the child of God, our trials are not meant to destroy us but to humble us, so we can truly be thankful to God for the multitude of His mercies that He pours out upon us every morning no matter the difficulties of our circumstances.
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn
Photo by Tony Reid