March 22                                                      Lamentations 3:  19 –24; I Peter 4:  1-8

 

 

Sometimes life gets really, really hard.  And during these times of suffering – when we’re struggling physically, emotionally, with personal difficulties - it is so hard to pull ourselves up.  Haven’t we all wondered when life gets really difficult if maybe God isn’t on the job?  Iif maybe He happens to be looking the other way?  It is too easy to think that way – when we can’t see a way out of our troubles, when we can see no answers.  And sometimes, as it says in one version of Lamentations, “I think of it constantly and my spirit is depressed”.  That feeling of being lost, of hitting bottom is so painful to the very depths of your soul. 

But wait!!  There is one thing to remember above all else – and this helps me to get a grip on hope.  God’s compassion, His love, His mercy, can’t run out!! It won’t dry up! Ever! His steadfast love never ceases. As it says in Lamentations, they are created every day –“fresh as the morning -- sure as the sunrise”.  The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue day after day after day. We always have this assurance and so in Him, we need to be patient, and in Him, we can put our hope.  And finally, as it says in I Peter 4: 7-8, stay wide awake and alert in prayer, and most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it!  For love makes up for practically anything. Faith, Hope and Love: with these three things, we can make it through life’s tough challenges.

 

The following beloved hymn speaks to me deeply:

 

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

 

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

 

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

 

 

~ Diane Desruisseaux