Lamentations 3:19-24 New American Standard Bible 1995
Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy
19 Remember my affliction and my [a]wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
20 Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses [b]indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
When have you ever felt like your soul was screaming in pain?
Sure, on the outside, you look the same.
You show up, dress up, and tell yourself to hurry up and move past this … but deeper inside, you feel a deeper chasm of grief that shouts, This is not fair!
For you, maybe it’s a broken heart you never expected or a season where it feels like the hard things never end.
Maybe you’re longing for days gone by and wondering if life will ever be good again.
Psalm 13 New American Standard Bible 1995
Prayer for Help in Trouble.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
13 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
4 And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
As you go through your day, you cannot help but wonder, God, where exactly are You in those moments when I need you the very most?
As you lie in bed at night, you can’t help but wonder, God where are You in this?
For me, it was depression.
I didn’t want to cry, but I couldn’t stop.
I wanted to get better, but I didn’t know how.
I wanted to have more faith and pull myself out of it, but I felt helpless.
I was screaming inwardly because I didn’t want to be the burden that I felt I was to God and others. I wanted to be carefree and full of hope, but instead I was broken and unsure of how to move forward in faith.
As I turned to Scripture for encouragement, I came to Lamentations 3.
The author poured out his own sorrow as he shared how he had seen affliction, bitterness and hardship.
I found comfort in the fact that he was so honest about his pain.
This whole book in the Bible is about lament, which means “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.”
Yet right smack in the middle of his cries, he made this bold statement: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail” (Lamentations 3:21-22).
These verses opened a crack of light into my darkness that day, and I felt my faith slowly stir up once again.
I didn’t have to deny my suffering — in fact, it was good to acknowledge it.
But even in the midst of post surgery depression, I could call truth to my mind.
I pray this encouragement from Lamentations stirs up your faith as well.
Even when our souls scream for relief, we’re tempted to wonder if God has left us alone, we can know His great compassion never has failed and never will fail.
Yes, our circumstances may be painful, but because of God’s great love, the pain will not consume us.
We can both acknowledge our pain and remember God’s goodness.
When we choose to remember who God is, we find hope to hold on to.
Audacious Hope
Lamentations 3:19-24 Easy-to-Read Version
19 Remember, I am very sad,
and I have no home.
Remember the bitter poison that you gave me.
20 I remember well all my troubles,
and I am very sad.
21 But then I think about this,
and I have hope:
22 We are still alive because
the Lord’s faithful love never ends.
23 Every morning he shows it in new ways!
You are so very true and loyal!
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my God,
and I trust him.”[a]
Hope is a Christian virtue. It’s a good and positive thing.
We need hope because the world is not yet the way God intends it to be.
We need hope because we are waiting for things to get better.
Hope means believing in the light even when we are in the darkness.
Psalm 9:18 Easy-to-Read Version
18 It may seem that those who are poor and needy have been forgotten,
but God will not forget them.
He will not leave them without hope.
Psalm 39:6-8 Easy-to-Read Version
6 Our life is like an image in a mirror.[a]
We rush through life collecting things,
but we don’t know who will get them after we die.
7 So, Lord, what hope do I have?
You are my hope!
8 Save me from the bad things I did.
Don’t let me be treated like a fool.
Psalm 62:5-6 Easy-to-Read Version
5 I must calm down and turn to God;
he is my only hope.
6 He is my Rock, the only one who can save me.
He is my high place of safety, where no army can defeat me.
Romans 12:9-13 Easy-to-Read Version
9 Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good. 10 Love each other in a way that makes you feel close like brothers and sisters. And give each other more honor than you give yourself. 11 As you serve the Lord, work hard and don’t be lazy. Be excited about serving him! 12 Be happy because of the hope you have. Be patient when you have troubles. Pray all the time. 13 Share with God’s people who need help. Look for people who need help and welcome them into your homes.
Hope opens us to have joy whatever the facts may be.
The facts around us show that the world can be a scary place.
But Christian hope is bold to say that even in the darkest times, God’s light still shines -even when we are afraid, God remains in absolute control of the entire universe, and he absolutely loves and cares for us more than we can imagine.
To those who do not know the Lord, having hope might seem like a crazy virtue.
If we consider the facts, we could be frightened about our lives and our world.
But because of the great love God has for us, we have sufficient reason for hope.
We have sufficient reason to believe that we are safe in the care of a faithful and powerful God. We can boldly hope in God and in the promises God makes to us.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23 Authorized (King James) Version
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 