LORD, I am thankful for your love, mercies, and compassions that never cease.

Today’s Scripture: Lamentations 3:22, ESV- “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;”

God shows up in awe-inspiring ways in our lives. When He shows up and shows out we have no doubt it is God. Whether we are right or wrong in our thinking or decisions; whether our circumstances are devastating or uplifting, our God is here.

In our journeys, I promise God will show up. Yes, I promise if we show up, we will experience God. I know the skeptic will always be the skeptic but they too, if God wills, will one day know God. Just this morning as I have been traveling my path of recording my journey so others too may come to know God, God cracked me up.

First of all, I have mentioned before that we should be aware of our random thoughts during our prayers. I have found those “prayer dreams” are not actually distracting from my prayers but more times than not, they are God taking me to where He wants.

In my prayers this morning as I traversed the hallowed be thy name portion of Jesus’ prayer. I was recalling who God is. This usually takes me from creation to Jesus. Somewhere after the Psalms and Proverbs I wondered where the scriptures went before or after the prophets. The “random” thought I had was Lamentations. I wondered to myself who wrote Lamentations and thought I would Google it when I went to the Word this morning.

I have been going back through my previous writings in 2010, almost twelve years, prior to this writing, as I want to leave a legacy of how I learned to experience God for some unknown soul. I went to the very next blog I had written on August 9, 2010 and I began to read. Yep, you guessed it and I laughed out loud as I was staring at Lamentations in my writing.

What??!! God, You crack me up. I am in awe of You LORD. You knew I was here today, and I didn’t have a clue. I was even wrong in thinking Lamentations was squeezed in between Psalms and Isaiah. Lamentations is a couple of books after Isaiah and immediately after Jeremiah.

I googled who wrote Lamentations and apparently, although not fully known, the accepted belief is that Lamentations was written by the Prophet Jeremiah. I read an article at https://insight.org/resources/bible/the-major-prophets/lamentations and it read like a movie script. For those, like me, who have long forgotten the setting of Lamentations this is an enjoyable read.

Per Chuck Swindoll’s article, Jeremiah recorded this book of Lamentations as he walked through the streets and alleys of the Holy City and saw nothing but pain, suffering, and destruction in the wake of the Babylonian invasion of 586 BC.

Our circumstances pale in comparison. However, wherever we are, whatever our prayers look like. God can and will bring us to the same place as long as we are walking with Him. God is our eternal source of hope. The writer reminds us that God’s lovingkindness and compassion never fails. Although we may not feel we can go on, we need to turn our minds to God and remember He loves us and will have compassion on us.

The following verse Lamentation 3:23 promises that God’s mercies and compassions are new every morning. This makes us see sunrises in a different light. It is the light of hope, faith, and promise. Lamentation 3:24 reminds us that “God is our portion says our souls, therefore we wait on Him.” As we keep showing up before God, He does show up for us and lifts our souls.

Lamentations 3:40 states: Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD; (NKJV). Let us examine what we are doing that may be causing our pain and turn back to God. He will love us and He will receive us with compassion.

We too can lift our hands up to Heaven and seek Him as Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:41. “ Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.” (NKJV) With the strength and love we have may we praise God for His love and compassion each morning as we face a new day.

We can seek our hope in God as Lamentations 3:57 provides: “You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!” (NKJV). Go ahead call out to God for hope. He will come to you and remind you that hope is in Him and for you not to fear. Have faith in His love and His compassion. Do not worry, do not fear.

Great is God’s faithfulness that is renewed every morning. We will find hope in Him today if we just show up and walk with Him and we will receive His love and compassion. Let us turn to God today away from those ways that lead us away from Him. We will find a new hope every morning.

Today’s Prayer: God, thank You for Your faithfulness. As we look to You in heaven you bring us hope with each new morning. Thank You for Your sunrises of new hopes and promises. In You LORD I wait and trust. Thank You LORD for revealing Yourself in us as we walk through the circumstances of our lives. In You, LORD, do we find great hope. Amen.