Hope - Jeremiah

The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

Lamentations 3:22-24

The Irish-born author and playwright George Bernard Shaw made no secret of his liberal thinking and atheism. Late in life, he wrote, “The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshipers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.”

You can’t be too careful about putting your hope in the right things, as the prophet Jeremiah understood well.

Jeremiah surveyed the ruins of the once-great city of Jerusalem, seeing little to spark his hope. Babylonian invaders obliterated the city, killing tens of thousands (including women and children) and marching thousands more off to Babylon, where they faced decades of slavery.

Jeremiah saw the death and destruction all around him and felt a pain we can only begin to imagine. With raw emotions, a broken heart, and a shocked mind, he stood numbly amid the horrible devastation and the smoldering rubble.

Still, Jeremiah found it within himself to speak to his one Source of hope. From his trembling lips came words of praise: “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Despite the stench of death hanging in the air, Jeremiah recognized that God had granted him life and that he loved the prophet and his people, despite all appearances. Jeremiah could hope for better things from the hand of his heavenly Father.

Where do you place your hope when you or your loved ones encounter pain and difficulty? By placing it squarely in a faithful, loving God—whatever the evidence might seem to suggest—you connect yourself to life, blessing, and hope.