“’The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’”
Lamentations 3:24
Lamentations is NOT a fun read. It’s full of affliction, darkness, bitterness, and hardship. Jeremiah, the prophet who wrote Lamentations, was witnessing the fall of Jerusalem, the enslavement and captivity of his people, and the destruction of God’s temple.
Jeremiah is mourning for both the fall of the city and the sinfulness of the nation. His book is brimming with sorrow and grief. And yet, in the middle of his book, he has hope.
I don’t know about you, but that seems crazy to me. His city is falling around him and God’s wrath is being poured out, and somehow in the midst of all of that, Jeremiah finds hope.
I’ve been through things that I thought were bad, like getting a B when I was 100% sure I was going to get an A, or not having a job when the pandemic first hit us in March, and I could barely find any hope in those circumstances.
And yet, the world around Jeremiah is basically falling apart, but he can still find hope in God and trust in God. So Jeremiah’s hope gives me hope — after all, if Jeremiah can trust in God and place his hope in God even as the worst things imaginable are happening to him, then I can definitely find hope in God in every circumstance of my life, too.
PRAYER: God, thank you that you are so, so good to me, even when I can’t see it. Help me to fix my eyes on you and to find my hope in you, God, through every circumstance of my life. I love you, Lord. Amen.