Day 1: Hope in Defeat

Read: Lamentations 3:21-24

I can still clearly remember the early stages of my relationship with my husband. I’d stay up so late, waiting for him to text or call me back. For the most part, he would respond and we’d lose sleep talking about so many things. But, there have been a handful of times when he’d get back home from work, head straight to bed, and I’d be left waiting, hoping in something that wasn’t going to happen.

How sad would it be if all my hope relied on a text from someone I liked? Someone who is flawed and fully human. Hope disappears when we don’t take the time to recall where our hope should come from.

Lamentations 3:21-24 says, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’”

In this passage, Jeremiah had just hit rock bottom with everything going on around him. He was in Jerusalem at the time as the people of Babylon were invading it. As the war ensued, Jeremiah witnessed people being slaughtered, children left starving, and mothers surviving by eating their own children!

This environment left Jeremiah distraught. We read that he felt he was torn to pieces (v.11), was filled with bitterness (v.15), and that his “soul [was] bereft of peace” (v.17). Yet, because he knew Who he could rely on, he didn’t crumble like the walls of Jerusalem. He cried out and prayed, even though evil was all that he saw. Because of this, Jeremiah remembered that God had promised to redeem Jerusalem and his hope was re-ignited.

With each new day, God provided a way, even in the midst of turmoil. God is faithful when He promises judgment. He is also faithful when He promises to restore what has been destroyed. Jeremiah felt whole because it was the Lord who satisfied him, and God never disappoints.

So much sadness and evil happens in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. In the midst of this, it is so true that God’s promises never fail. Just like God was faithful when He promised to send a flood during Noah’s time, He was faithful when He promised to send His Son who would be a part of rebuilding what the world had broken.

What comes to mind when you think of hope? Who comes to mind? This week will be a reminder of the hope that we are able to have because of the fact that Christ came down to save us. In every trial, God has a plan. We can hope in the fact that His will is perfect.