Today, I am reading and commenting on  Lamentations 3-5.

The prophet continues his lament, discussing how completely depressed he was by his suffering.  Though he had depression because of his suffering he also had hope because of God’s great compassion.  God’s compassion is new every morning, His love is unfailing.  God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.  This needs to be given a bit of thought.  If God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone, they must result from our sin.  God punishes us for sin in order to turn us from our sin before we suffer even greater affliction and/or grief than His punishment brings us.  So, we should examine our ways and test where we are not doing God’s will, especially when we face suffering or grief, but not just when we face suffering and grief.  Then, when we identify where we fall short of doing what is right, we should return to God and beg His forgiveness.

I had grown up with the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” which says that God’s compassion does not fail.  So, that felt like one of those things that everyone would understand.  Then I wrote that as part of the title for today’s blog and realized that needed some thought.  In the same verse where the prophet says that God’s compassion is new every morning he writes that God has great faithfulness.  Each and every day, God offers us new opportunities to serve Him.  Each and every morning we can seek those opportunities and put our hope in Him.  If we trust in God, He will give us hope.  When we face suffering, affliction, and grief, each day brings new hope.  Let us patiently wait for God to act.  Each day let us call out to Him, then wait to see what His response will be.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.